On the final play of the first drive of the first quarter of Week 1, when the Seattle Seahawks took on the New England Patriots, quarterback Sam Darnold limped lightly off the field. He didn't appear to be in excruciating pain, but any pain for QB1 was scary for 12s.
Initially listed as questionable, Darnold was then ruled out with a hip injury. According to NFL insider Adam Schefter, he was taken to Harborview Medical Center for testing, and head coach Mike Macdonald said no fracture was found. The coach, mind you, also said he was only relaying what people were telling him, and he obviously hadn't been to the hospital.
So what's next for the quarterback and then the team? More tests for Darnold are one, and those are expected to come on Thursday. He likely isn't out of the proverbial woods yet, as he did suffer an injury, after all, and hip issues can go deep into the joint.
Updated on Sunday, September 22, at 10 am PT
- Seattle Seahawks' Sam Darnold will need more testing to determine the severity of his hip issue
- Sam Darnold injury updates
Seattle Seahawks' Sam Darnold will need more testing to determine the severity of his hip issue
No timeline yet exists for his return, but Seattle doesn't play again until September 20, when the Seahawks travel to play the Arizona Cardinals in State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The fortunate part about beginning the season on a Wednesday is that any players injured in the game have more time to recover before the next game.
Darnold has been a full-time starter again since 2024, when he spent one season with the Minnesota Vikings. He signed with Seattle in the 2025 offseason for three years, and his contract runs through 2027. He will likely sign an extension before next season, though.
He does not have a long injury history, with his last significant one coming in 2022 when he was with the Carolina Panthers. This is what he has gone through so far in his career:
- Left ankle injury, August 2022: Missed the early portion of the season with the Carolina Panthers
- Right shoulder injury, November 2021: Missed five games with the Panthers
- Right shoulder sprain, November 2020: Missed multiple games
- Mononucleosis, September 2019: Missed three games
- Pedal foot sprain, November 2018: Missed three games
The above implies that Sam Darnold doesn't suffer from some kind of degenerative hip condition, as the 29-year-old has never hurt his hip before. That said, more testing could determine something more significant, even if initial testing was inconclusive.
Thankfully, in Darnold's absence, backup Drew Lock was pretty good. Lock led the Seattle Seahawks to a 13-10 victory, completing 16 of 22 passes for 187 yards and a touchdown. His quarterback rating was 113.3. The Patriots have a good defense, so Lock's efficiency might allow fans to breathe easier if Darnold's injury forces him to miss multiple games.
Sam Darnold injury updates
The update as of Sunday, September 13, from NFL insider Ian Rapoport is that Darnold didn't have a hip injury but a glute issue that is muscular in nature. This will likely keep him out of Week 2, but possibly not any longer.
For a run-down of how the Darnold injury had been reported up until the latest, it looks like the below.
According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, from Thursday, September 10, Darnold had an MRI on his hip on Thursday morning, and team doctors are reviewing the results. The quarterback is expected to miss "some" time, but the timeline is not yet known. Schefter said the team believes it "dodged a bullet" in terms of a long-term injury to the quarterback.
On Seattle Sports 710 AM, on September 10, Mike Macdonald unsurprisingly didn't go into detail about Darnold's injury and gave no timeline for his return (as the injury is still too new), but the head coach did imply the team wouldn't know how soon Darnold could return until the quarterback was at team facilities and trying to move on the field. There was no fracture to the hip, but instead an apparent muscular issue.
Macdonald did add that "in (my) mind, Drew's going to play" in Week 2. He also added that no one has told him that, and he might only be hedging.
On Monday, September 21, Mike Macdonald said there was a chance Darnold would practice on Wednesday. However, the team is still taking a wait-and-see approach to when the quarterback next plays in a real game.
This article will be updated as new information about Darnold's injury is announced.
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