The Seattle Seahawks, for now, will stick with their Super Bowl winning quarterback amid continued struggles with turnovers and accuracy.
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald told Seattle Sports 710 and subsequent reporters Friday that there will be no pivot to Drew Lock, who started and performed well against the Arizona Cardinals and otherwise didn’t have any turnovers in (in the main) two games played.
“We have a great backup quarterback in Drew,” Macdonald told Seattle Sports. “Drew is a tremendous quarterback. He’s a starting-level quarterback, and [I understand] that we didn’t turn the ball over when Drew played, then we had takeaway issues [with Sam starting].
“But right now, I think we have to attack these things as if they are in our control, and then we can take it forward. Sam has played good football for us this year most of the time, and there are other times where, and he will be the first to tell you, he has to take care of the football.”
Darnold acknowledged Thursday night following his two-interception disaster against the Denver Broncos that turnovers, of which he had a league-leading seven picks, hurt the team.
“I think it’s ‘BS,’ you know, so I keep getting the ball back,” Darnold said. “It’s not fair to our defense, not fair to our special teams’ group, really not fair to the whole team. So I have to be better that way.”
“We have a lot of faith in Sam,” Macdonald said at his press conference. “Sam played great football for us. He did a lot of good things this year. He obviously turned the ball over more than we wanted. There are things in our side that will help him play better football and he’s part of the solution rather than the other way around.”
Unsurprisingly, Macdonald didn’t get off the plane and immediately declared Drew Lock the starter. We were here with Mike when Geno Smith had turnover issues in the 2024 season, most notably against the Los Angeles Rams in a 26-20 overtime loss. He never ordered Geno for Sam Howell, and now we have another conversation with Darnold and Drew Lock.
If Darnold continues to struggle against the Kansas City Chiefs, a change at QB really shouldn’t be out of the question. It’s less of, “Is Drew Lock suddenly the franchise quarterback?” and more on, “Will Drew Lock be less of a liability than Sam Darnold?” at this point in what is on course to be a very disappointing season.
A much-anticipated Sunday night showdown in Kansas City, in part due to Ken Walker’s return to Seattle, now has a bigger storyline to watch.