So you want to be a quarterback in the NFL.
How about making your first start against the defending champions with a famously good defense?
That’s the situation No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza is facing for Week 10 after the Raiders agreed to trade Kirk Cousins to the Vikings for a third-round pick on Tuesday.
Having served as the backup, Mendoza is now in line to make his first start against the Seahawks on Sunday.
At least the game will be in Las Vegas.
Though the Seahawks are currently 5-4, the team’s defense still ranks No. 4 in points allowed and No. 1 in yards allowed. The unit has allowed just 139 first downs, which ranks atop the league. And Seattle sports the league’s No. 1 pass defense.
Mendoza has made just one appearance so far as a rookie, entering the Oct. 11 loss to the Patriots once the game had gotten out of hand. He completed 6-of-8 passes for 48 yards in the contest.
The Raiders also have Aidan O’Connell on their 53-man roster at quarterback. They may be inclined to add another QB, as the club currently doesn’t have one on the practice squad.
Seahawks Clips
The Vikings’ quarterback situation has been a rollercoaster with more lows than highs since Kirk Cousins left for the Falcons and Sam Darnold left for the Seahawks.
They’re expected to make their next attempt at fixing the situation on Tuesday.
A source with knowledge of the situation tells PFT that the Vikings will trade for a quarterback before Tuesday’s 4:00 p.m. ET deadline.
The options, per the source, are “Daniel Jones, Geno Smith, Mac Jones, Kirk Cousins, TBD surprise, TBD huge surprise, but it will be someone.”
Other possibilities mentioned by the source were Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston.
Whatever the Vikings do, it’s going to cost them. If they’d had a deal in place before Monday night’s game, it would have been cheaper. After last night’s debacle from Carson Wentz, teams will be putting their thumbs — and elbows — on the scale.
Regardless, they need to do something. If they don’t, 6-2 could become 6-11. And that would possibly result in a new coach in Minnesota come 2027.
In the categories of “surprise” and/or “huge surprise” would be (and this is just the throwing of a dart): Justin Herbert, Matthew Stafford, and Sam Darnold.
Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold will not play in Sunday’s game against the Raiders, but he could return after the team’s bye week.
Coach Mike Macdonald said Drew Lock is expected to start in Darnold’s stead despite oblique and throwing elbow injuries.
Darnold will miss a second consecutive game with quad and rib injuries, but he could be back for the showdown with the rival 49ers on Nov. 29.
“I think so, yeah,” Macdonald told reporters Monday, via Cameron Van Til of Seattle Sports. “He’s making progress. We’re going to need some more time.”
The Seahawks also won’t have left guard Quenton Nelson, who will miss Sunday’s game with a knee injury. Macdonald said it’s “possible” that Nelson can return after the bye, too.
Nelson will undergo a “minor” knee procedure, per Macdonald.
So much for Carson Wentz stealing Kyler Murray’s job. The Vikings offense looks a lot like it has most of the season.
The Vikings are struggling to gain yards and score points Monday night against the Bills, who are struggling almost as much against the Minnesota defense.
Buffalo leads 10-6 at halftime.
The Vikings’ first four drives went three plays or less. Their first field goal — a 43-yard kick by Will Reichard — came on a four-play, 9-yard drive after a Bills’ punt out of their own end zone. Reichard added a 53-yarder with 5 seconds left in the half, completing a seven-play, 46-yard drive.
Two replay decisions went the Bills’ way in the first half: 1. Carson Wentz threw a lateral to Justin Jefferson that hit the ground and was covered by Bills defensive lineman Greg Rousseau at the Minnesota 44. Joe Brady challenged the on-field ruling of an incompletion, and replay reversed it to a fumble. The Bills got a 39-yard Tyler Bass field goal out of it. 2. Josh Allen was sacked by Andrew Van Ginkel at the Buffalo 2 and fumbled. Replay, though, showed Allen’s knee was on the ground before Van Ginkel knocked the ball loose.
The Bills outgained the Vikings 143 to 86 despite three sacks of Allen, who is 13-of-20 for 122 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
He threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Keleki Latu with 44 seconds left in the first half after rolling to his right to buy time. It was Latu’s first career touchdown.
Allen was 6-for-6 on the eight-play, 80-yard touchdown drive.
James Cook has 15 carries for only 33 yards.
Wentz is 7-of-17 for 75 yards, with Jefferson catching two for 39. Aaron Jones has three rushes for 10 yards.
Sam Darnold will be out for at least another week, but the Seahawks’ regular backup quarterback should be able to play in the Week 10 matchup against the Raiders.
Head coach Mike Macdonald said in his weekly interview with Seattle Sports 710’s Brock Huard and Mike Salk that Darnold will miss another game with his quad injury. But the team is planning to start Drew Lock again, even though he was injured during Sunday’s win over the Cardinals.
“Good exam for Drew,” Macdonald said, via Andrew Destin of TheAthletic.com. “He’s dealing with an oblique. And, I think it’s something we can manage.”
Lock completed 19-of-28 passes for 175 yards with a touchdown in the 17-3 victory over the Cardinals. he also rushed five times for 16 yards.
He did not miss an offensive snap.
While Lock has also been dealing with an elbow issue, the Seahawks kept him limited on the report for all three days last week before he had no game status and started against Arizona. The plan could be similar for Lock in Week 10.
Jalen Milroe is Seattle’s third quarterback, though he has not appeared in a game so far in 2026.
The Seahawks have another injury issue at quarterback.
Head coach Mike Macdonald said at his press conference after Sunday’s 17-3 win over the Cardinals that Drew Lock has an oblique injury. Macdonald said that Lock’s status for Week 10’s game against the Raiders is “up in the air” as a result.
Lock was 19-of-28 for 175 yards and a touchdown in the win.
Lock started against Arizona because Sam Darnold was ruled out with a quad injury. His status for next Sunday is also uncertain.
2025 third-round pick Jalen Milroe is the next man up on the quarterback depth chart in Seattle. The Seahawks also added Adrian Martinez to the practice squad in the wake of Darnold’s injury.
Seahawks quarterback Drew Lock did today what he’s done three times this season: Played mistake-free football and led Seattle to a win.
Lock, playing once again for an injured Sam Darnold, was steady and efficient as the Seahawks controlled the game and beat the Cardinals 17-3.
Is Lock a better quarterback than Darnold? Probably not, but Lock might be better for what the Seahawks need right now, which is a quarterback who can play mistake-free football and let the defense win the game. Darnold has thrown nine interceptions this season, while Lock has thrown none.
Today Lock completed 19 of 28 passes for 175 yards and one touchdown. Not spectacular numbers, but the key numbers were zeroes: Zero interceptions, zero fumbles, zero sacks. Darnold has far more negative plays than Lock does this season, and that’s one of the reasons the Seahawks are 3-0 in the three games that have been primarily quarterbacked by Lock, and 2-4 in the six games that have primarily been quarterbacked by Darnold.
At 5-4, the Seahawks aren’t the team they hoped to be heading into this season, but they’re very much in contention. And they might just have a better chance of making the playoffs and getting an opportunity to defend their title if Lock keeps playing.
Seahawks tight end AJ Barner made the most of his opportunities in the first half today.
Barner only touched the ball four times in the first half, but two of them were touchdowns: He took the snap and ran up the middle for a touchdown on a tush push, and he also caught a seven-yard pass from Drew Lock for a receiving touchdown.
Those are the only two touchdowns in a game the Seahawks are leading 14-3 early in the third quarter.
At the end of the second quarter, Cardinals quarterback Gardner Minshew took a hard hit from Dante Fowler and appeared to injure his throwing arm, but he was back on the field for the start of the third quarter.
Cardinals rookie quarterback Carson Beck has been warming up, and it’s possible that he’ll see some action in the second half, but for now it’s Minshew’s job to dig the Cardinals out of their hole.
Maybe this year they’ll send Jaxon Smith-Njigba a trophy without a typo.
The Seahawks receiver, through eight games, remains on pace to become the first player to generate more than 2,000 receiving yards in a single season.
His 985 yards project to 2,093 yards for the full season.
The current record is held by Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson, who gained 1,964 yards in 2012 with the Lions.
And for those who would argue that an asterisk should apply based on the extension of the season to 17 games, Smith-Njigba’s current production puts him on pace for 1,970 yards in 16 games.
There’s something more immediate that Smith-Njigba can achieve. With 115 receiving yards and a touchdown against the Cardinals on Sunday, Smith-Njigba will become only the fourth player in NFL history with 1,100 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns through the first nine games of a season.
The others were Hall of Famer Don Hutson in 1942, Hall of Famer Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch in 1951, and Hall of Famer Raymond Berry in 1960.
It’s amazing that it hasn’t happened in 66 years. With the rules that loosened the passing game in the 1970s, and given the many great receivers who have played over the past six decades (Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, just to name three), no one has done what Smith-Njigba could do today.
Quenton Nelson made his Seahawks debut in Week 8 and he’ll miss his first game as a Seahawk in Week 9.
Nelson has been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Cardinals due to a knee injury. Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said that Nelson will have a minor procedure on his knee and will not go on injured reserve, but he will be considered week-to-week moving forward.
Grey Zabel will move back to left guard with Anthony Bradford returning to the right guard spot.
Macdonald also announced that defensive tackle Leonard Williams will miss the game with a stinger. Left tackle Charles Cross (ankle), linebacker Uchenna Nwosu (ankle), wide receiver Rashid Shaheed (knee), and defensive tackle Brandon Pili (back) were also ruled out on Friday.
Quarterback Sam Darnold (quad) was ruled out earlier in the week, so it will be an inactive list with a lot of significant names on it for the Seahawks this week.
