The Seattle Seahawks likely would not be 7-3, which is where the team stands after Week 11, without quarterback Sam Darnold. For much of the season, he has been very good. He has been better than former QB1 Geno Smith, but the new QB1 still has a lot to prove.
When he needs to prove it is important. That won't come in Week 12 when the Seahawks take on the putrid Tennessee Titans. If Darnold replicates his Week 11 performance, when he had four interceptions and no touchdowns in a loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
The defeat moved Seattle back to second place in the NFC West in a situation that is very reminiscent of 2024, when Seattle lost to the Rams in Week 9 and then finished with the same record as LA but missed the playoffs because of tie-break situations. There is still time to change that narrative this year.
Honeymoon phase for Sam Darnold with the Seattle Seahawks is officially done
Sam Darnold was signed to provide a few upgrades for the Seahawks. General manager John Schneider expected him to be a better leader than Geno Smith, and that appears to be the case. Darnold is beloved by his teammates in a way Smith never was and likely never could be.
The new quarterback was also supposed to be a much better fit in new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak's system than Smith would have been, and that is also the case. No matter what happened in Week 11, the Seahawks offense is still a success, averaging a second-best 29.4 points per game.
But one of the consistent criticisms of Darnold was that he didn't play well in the extremely important games and had too many turnovers. Week 11 was the team's most important game of the season, and the quarterback play was dismal.
No matter that Seattle had a chance to win on a 61-yard field goal at the last second, had Darnold been better, the Seahawks might have won the game by 10 points. He often allowed the Rams to start in great field position by intercepting Darnold, and it was Seattle's defense that kept the team in a position to have a chance to win.
Even before the Rams game, Darnold had a relatively high interception percentage at 2.6. After Week 11, that percentage has gone up to 3.7, fourth-worst in the NFL. His 10 interceptions are the third-worst.
Moreover, Darnold has now turned the ball over 14 times this season, but 10 of them have come in the second half of games. Three of them happened against Los Angeles. That trend must cease, or a potentially great Seattle Seahawks season will end in disappointment.