The Seattle Seahawks won't make an official designation on quarterback Sam Darnold until Friday, two days before the team plays the Washington Commanders in Week 3. Darnold, though, spoke to the media in the team's Thursday press conference and sounded as if he were playing. That he was speaking to reporters matters, too.
Thursday press conferences are set aside for players and not coaches. More specifically, the starting quarterback for the next game speaks, and Darnold was speaking instead of Drew Lock, Seattle's backup, who replaced Darnold after QB1 was injured on the first drive of Week 1 and also started in Week 2, implying that Lock will return to the bench against the Commanders.
Darnold told reporters, "I'm really striving for that. But like I said, I'm just taking it day by day. I also don't want to jinx anything."
Sam Darnold heavily implies that he will be playing for the Seattle Seahawks in Week 3
In other words, the quarterback thinks he is playing on Sunday, and the only thing that will stop him is an unexpected setback in terms of his glute injury. What Darnold has been having to manage is the pain level, not so much avoiding a long-term injury. If he is 85 percent healthy, he will likely play.
The Seahawks shouldn't be fearful of playing in Washington with or without Sam Darnold, though. Seattle has the better roster overall, and, importantly, Drew Lock has played really well as the temporary starter. He is a backup for a reason, though, and some of that has to do with consistency, but if he played against the Commanders as he did in the first two games, Seattle would be fine.
Through two games, Lock has completed 35 of 48 passes (72.9 percent) and four touchdowns. He hasn't turned the ball over. His quarterback rating of 127.3 leads the NFL, albeit in extremely limited reps.
Washington struggled defensively last season, and in the first two games of this year, they've been awful.
They are easily the worst against the pass in the league, having allowed a quarterback rating of 137.1. 71.4 percent of the passes thrown against them have been completed. 12.5 percent of the passes have resulted in touchdowns, a number nearly three percentage points higher than any other team.
Of course, a two-game sample size is meaningless. Washington can suddenly be a lot better moving forward, though they have shown nothing to imply that anyone should expect that. But getting better against Sam Darnold might be a challenge, and Darnold is the Seattle Seahawks quarterback they will likely be facing in Week 3.
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