Sam Darnold out for Week 9 is now official: the Seattle Seahawks will be without their starting quarterback when they host the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, and Drew Lock will start in his place. Head coach Mike Macdonald confirmed the decision on Wednesday, two days after Darnold was hurt in Seattle’s 34-17 loss to the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football.
Table of Contents
The game kicks off at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday at Lumen Field and airs on FOX. Seattle is 4-4 and defending its Super Bowl title, and the timing could hardly be worse: the Seahawks have lost two straight and now face a division rival without the quarterback who has started every game of their title defense.
Sam Darnold out: how the injury happened
Darnold was hurt twice in the same game, and played through both injuries. He cracked a rib on Seattle’s second offensive play against Chicago, after taking a hit early in the game, and then injured a quadriceps muscle late in the contest. He finished the game, completing 17 of 34 passes in the 34-17 loss to the Bears, but the quad injury is the one that will keep him out on Sunday.
Macdonald described Darnold as week-to-week, and the Seahawks do not plan to place him on injured reserve. That leaves the door open for a return in Week 10 against the Las Vegas Raiders, before Seattle’s bye in Week 11. For now, though, the Seahawks must win a division game without him.
Drew Lock gets the start — again
Lock is no stranger to this spot. He started the bulk of Seattle’s first two games this season after Darnold injured a glute muscle on the first drive of the season opener, and the Seahawks won both games. His second start of the year will come against the same opponent he beat in Week 2: Lock completed 19 of 26 passes for 235 yards and three touchdowns in a 31-7 win over Arizona.
For the season, Lock has thrown for 422 yards and four touchdowns without an interception. But he is not fully healthy himself. Lock has been limited in practice for two weeks because of a right elbow injury and served as the emergency third quarterback in each of the past two games. Macdonald said the Seahawks will manage his throwing workload this week, and third-stringer Jalen Milroe will also take first-team practice repetitions in case Lock’s elbow becomes an issue. Seattle also signed quarterback Adrian Martinez to its practice squad on Wednesday for depth.
The matchup: two backup quarterbacks
Sunday’s game will feature a backup quarterback on both sides. Arizona will start Gardner Minshew, after Jacoby Brissett — the Cardinals’ previous backup — was traded to Baltimore, where the Ravens are dealing with their own quarterback crisis after losing Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley to injury. That deal left Arizona turning to Minshew for his first start of the season.
It is a strange twist for a division game in November: two teams that began the season with settled starters will both be led by backups. Seattle, at home, will lean on its running game and defense to protect Lock, while Arizona will try to take advantage of a Seahawks offense that has now lost its starting quarterback for the second time this season.
Analysis: what this means for Seattle
This is analysis, not a result: the game has not been played yet. On the verified facts, the Seahawks have reasons for cautious optimism and real cause for concern in equal measure.
The encouraging part is the matchup history. Lock has already beaten this Arizona team, and he did it convincingly, with three touchdown passes and no turnovers. He has also protected the football all season, with no interceptions in his appearances. If Seattle can run the ball, control the clock and let its defense set the tone at home, Lock does not need to win the game on his own.
The concern is his elbow. A quarterback on a managed throwing workload, with a third-stringer taking first-team reps behind him, is one hit away from a deeper problem. NFL analyst Mike Florio also questioned why Seattle announced Darnold’s absence so early in the week, arguing it gave Arizona extra time to prepare for Lock. The Seahawks’ margin for error is thin: a loss drops them to 4-5 before a Week 10 game against the Raiders and the bye, and the NFC West does not wait for anyone to get healthy.
Around the league: Sanders in line in Cleveland
Seattle is not the only team facing a quarterback decision this week. In Cleveland, Deshaun Watson was placed in the NFL’s concussion protocol on Wednesday, putting Shedeur Sanders in line to start Sunday against the New Orleans Saints. Watson took a helmet-to-helmet hit in the first quarter of Sunday’s 27-6 loss at Pittsburgh, was cleared to return during the game, and reported concussion symptoms on Tuesday morning after they began the night before.
Sanders took the first-team repetitions in practice on Wednesday, though head coach Todd Monken stopped short of naming a starter because Watson has not been ruled out. The Browns are 5-3, and Watson has completed 65.5 percent of his passes for 1,806 yards with seven touchdowns and three interceptions this season. Sanders, a fifth-round pick in 2025, started the final seven games of his rookie season and went 3-4 with 1,400 yards, seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Like Philadelphia’s Joe Milton, who will make his first career start on Sunday, Sanders would be stepping in because the starter ahead of him is unavailable — a reminder of how quickly the quarterback picture can change around the league in one week.
What to watch next
Sunday’s game kicks off at 4:25 p.m. ET at Lumen Field on FOX. Watch how much Seattle trusts Lock to throw downfield, whether the running game can carry the offense, and whether Milroe is needed at any point. A Seahawks win keeps them at .500 and sends them into the Raiders game with momentum. A loss, with Darnold’s return still uncertain, would leave the defending champions below .500 heading into their bye — and the questions in Seattle would only get louder.
For more on Baltimore’s quarterback situation, see our Jaguars vs Ravens Thursday Night Football preview.
