Sam Darnold: “We’re Continuing To Evolve As An Offense” | Seattle Seahawks

Sam Darnold: “We’re Continuing To Evolve As An Offense” | Seattle Seahawks

Alrighty. Um, yeah, like guys, I feel like I’m a broken record at this point, but uh, another great defense we’re going against, man. Um, you know, Houston and and you know, coach Demo Ryan’s over there. I feel like he has those guys rolling. Um, you know, their defense is playing really well. They’re playing at a high level. Offenses, too, obviously, but um, just all the all the guys that they have on defense, man. They have they have such great personnel, the guys up front, you know, the the linebackers, the secondary. um you know they fly around they they know their scheme you know inside and out and they do a good job you know whether they want to play coverage or pressure or play manto man um you know they do a really good job in that and uh yeah we got our hands full this week but we’re again like I say all the time man we’re we’re really excited about this opportunity. What’s the balance like as a quarterback from you know respecting really good defense and what they do well versus saying hey you know this is what we do as an offense and we want to do our stuff. Yeah, I mean you’re always, you know, you always have a game plan going into a game and um understanding kind of what coverages they like to play and, you know, tendencies, all all those things play into it, but at the end of the day, like, um, you know, we’re going to run things that that we know, um, you know, that will not only be good for us, but, you know, hopefully work against them. Um, so that’s that’s the, you know, that’s really the theme every single week is just understanding what kind of defense we’re playing against and and what we do really well and how that can, you know, complement the game the game plan. What how do you assess your running game right now? I mean, you guys run it a lot and just committed to it that like the average per carry isn’t super great statistically, but kind of how do you how do you look at that overall? Just kind of where your run game is and what you what you’re getting out of it. Yeah, I think like anything else, we’re just continuing to evolve as an offense. We’re continuing to work on things. Um, so yeah, we’re just going to, you know, continue to to work on it. Um, you know, Monday through Saturday, or I guess in this case, you know, Tuesday through through Sunday and, uh, yeah, we’ll be ready to roll by the time Monday night comes around. But yeah, we’re always, you know, evolving as an offense and making sure that everyone’s on point, whether it’s the run game or the pass game. Do you ever notice uh characteristics of the coach and the position that that he might have played? like Demo was a linebacker and this is a defense that you know best in play action defense like do you see those things that happen in the NFL? Yeah, I mean you know people talk about all the time like you know head coaches and the teams kind of mirroring each other’s personalities. I feel like, you know, their defense, you know, they they fly around, they hit, they play really hard, they do all the things that, you know, you’re coached to do as a defense. And, you know, again, like I said, it’s really fun to be able to, you know, turn on that tape and see that, you know, understand that it is a really really great opportunity for us to to go out there and play against a really good defense and see what we can do. You played them last year as well. Do you see similarities? Is there much changed from from last year? Um, yeah. Yeah, I think they’ve they’ve changed a couple things. Um, you know, obviously personnel, some personnel things have changed a little bit, but you know, they got a lot of similar um similar guys out there as well. So, um, and then some some scheme things here and there, but um, yeah, they, like I said, they do what they do and they do it really well. When you’ve got a guy like AJ and last week that 61 y, I think that was the first time he was targeted in the game. Do you have to say anything to keep those guys in the game or do they just know the ball could come to them at any time? Not at all. You know, I think we have such a great group in the in the locker room. You know, all the all the skill position guys, tight ends, receivers, running backs, they they all understand that, you know, it’s it’s their ball at any moment. You know, I just I go through my reads. Um, you know, I do what I can to to help this help this ball club, you know, move move the ball down the field. Um, at the end of the day, that is my job and um I just, you know, I try to find the open guy. That that play to AJ, it was a play action. You got the defense to bite on the fake. Do you feel like even as the run game numbers haven’t been what you want, do you feel like it’s still having an effect on like having something of the desired effect on defenses? Yeah, I think, you know, at the end of the day, defenses always have to respect our run game. Um, you know, and, you know, that’s I think we’ve we’ve put really good stuff on tape. You know, just some of the little things that that haven’t necessarily gone well um are all things that we can control. So, like I said, we’re just going to continue to to work on those things and get better. When you’re looking at game plan and film, do you ever take the other teams by week into consideration, as in the Texans are coming off their buy, so they could have done self scout, they could have changed some things, guys are healthier. Does that play in? Yeah, I mean, you know, you’re always thinking, you’re always thinking about things like that, but at the end of the day, you know, we we got to go off of the tape that we see um and the things that we see, you know, whether it’s from this year or the or the, you know, 2024. So, um, you know, shoot, even some coaches go back to 23 to see what they’re doing. So, um, you know, there’s a lot of things that we look at, you know, with this entire week that we’ve we’ve had to prepare. So, um, you know, like I said, we’re we’re just excited. We’re excited about this opportunity and, you know, if they want to if they want to throw some some wrinkles at us um, in this game, we’ll we’ll be ready for it. You guys had a couple chances earlier in the season to close out games and it didn’t always go as you wanted. And this game against uh, Jacksonville, there’s a few chances where it wasn’t going well. give you a chance and you did close it out. Was that was that important for the offense? Yeah, for sure. I think there’s there’s so many different ways to win games as we’re all seeing in the NFL. You know, it’s um I’ve seen it over the last, you know, seven seven and some change um years. So, it’s uh it’s crazy. This league is insane just the amount of different ways that you can win football games. I mean, we saw it last night, right, in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. like you know Aaron makes that incredible play um and then Joe leads his team down the field to you know kick a game-winning field goal and then still even at the end of the game Aaron throws a Hail Mary and still gets it to the end zone. So there’s so many different ways to win in this league and um you know we’re we’re just prepared for all those situations. Um I think you know Coach McDonald does a really good job of you know making sure that we’re really prepared for situations that come up like that and um we’re just going to continue to practice hard and and do what we can to get ready for the game. when you look back at the third downs against Jacksonville, what did you see? Yeah, I think, you know, first and foremost, I think, you know, I could do a better job of getting the ball out. Um, you know, understanding kind of different pressures and things. Um, you know, being able to find underneath guys that that even though they’re, you know, in front of the change, they’ll be able to chains, they’ll be able to convert, you know, moving the ball down the field. So, um, you know, just little things we can tweak, you know, here and there, but, you know, at the end of the day, we just got to do our job. I got to I got to see what the defense is presenting to me, understand where my issues are, and and try to get the ball out. Um, if they bring pressure, when they when they do show maybe pressure, maybe not. When they show that, are you sorting a lot of stuff out pre- snap each time? I mean, it depends depends what what uh you know, protection’s called. Um, could also run it in certain situations. So, um, there’s a lot of different things that that can come up on third down, but we’ll be prepared for it. What’s it like quarterbacks that get good enough at diagnosing blitzes and pressures that they kind of hunt those opportunities? Do you feel like you’ve gotten to that point yet? Yeah. Yeah. I think, like I said, I think I can do a lot better job of of being able to, you know, see that, especially when I look at that Jacksonville game, I felt like I the one I got sacked on, I felt like I could have got the ball out on that one um for a first down. So, um just learning learning and growing from those experiences. You know, it’s always nice to to learn those lessons in a win. Um but we got to be a lot better in that area and we will be. What’s it like as an opposing quarterback in an offense to have to deal with the noise at limit field when it’s really cranked up? It’s tough. It’s tough, man. It’s uh it’s something, you know, I remember last year coming here, you know, when I was in Minnesota. There was I was under center and, you know, my O line had a hard time, you know, hearing me even under center. You know, for some reason that place just echoes. Um, you know, that’s a huge, you know, huge shout out to our fans. Man, the twelves do a great job of of being able to make that play shake and it’s a it’s a really really tough place to come and play and you got to be on you got to be on your silent count. You got to be on communication as an offense. The drive where you threw the the winning touchdown to Jefferson, I think a few plays before that you’re like covering Oh yeah. your whole trying here. What do you remember about that drive and dealing with it on that drive in particular? Yeah, I mean that was you know I think that play specifically. I remember my offensive, you know, my center, I think, coming up to me after the play and hey, we just heard the echo of your voice and we snapped it. You know, it was it was so tough to hear in that environment. And again, that’s just credit to the twelves. You mentioned last night’s game, Aaron Rogers threw like 70 yards on that last play. How often do you guys practice? Did you I mean, do you practice plays like that very often or? Yeah, I mean, we’re always walking through situations like that. um you know, you’re not necessarily practicing Hail Marys all the time, but um when we get an opportunity to to be able to, you know, walk through it in the indoor, we always, you know, have those opportunities, es especially on Saturdays. Um and then after practice, every now and then, I’ll hit some long toss, make sure I’m always ready for that. What’s the furthest you’ve ever thrown a football? Shoot, I don’t know. We’ll have to go back in the archives for that, but um I don’t know. I would guess probably like mid60s, maybe touching 70. Not sure though. Do do you know um like your guys on offense, do you know how much of their stories do you know like their backgrounds um on offense? Yeah, just on offense. Yeah, I mean it’s a it’s a great question because you know there’s so many guys, right? There’s so many guys on offense, so many guys on defense. You try to get to know everybody. Um and it seems like a long time, but it’s really not. To be able to really get to know people, um I feel like our team here does a really great job of just trying to get together um when they can. It’s really hard for me personally just because, you know, I spend a lot of time throughout the week studying and doing my thing to to try to nail this game plan. But, um, you know, I know I know a lot of guys um, you know, I’m sure I don’t know all of their stories, um, you know, very in detail. Um, but I know a lot of the guys personally and, you know, I feel like, uh, yeah, I’ll leave it at that. See value in it when you do know more about a guy. For sure. I think, you know, the more the more you can know somebody, the more um I guess chemistry there is that you have off the field. I feel like that’s a direct correlation um to, you know, how you um connect with somebody on the field as well. Some teams excel at edge pressure, some teams are better interior. As a quarterback, I mean, obviously you’d rather have no pressure, but uh is there one that’s harder to deal with than the other? Um, it depends what, you know, it depends what’s called, you know, depending on, you know, if we’re in a six-man protection, a fiveman protection, sometimes we’re in a seven. So, there’s so many there’s so many different factors to that question. Um, I would love to maybe go into in depth on that at some point, but um, yeah, there’s there’s a lot of different things that can kind of, you know, uh, trouble a protection whether it’s interior or exterior pressure. Going back to knowing your guys, I think Jax had mentioned he’s one of the guys who came down to LA. I think you guys were in with the chemistry that you guys clearly have. Does that is there value in that? Just like knowing knowing him and his his story? Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think being able to know people kind of like I said, it just I I I think personally it directs, you know, it it’s there’s such a correlation to how you know somebody off the field and and how you connect on the field. I think it’s a no-brainer. Appreciate it, guys. Thank you.

Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold shares insights on the upcoming game against the Houston Texans. He praises the Texans’ defense (0:01), highlighting their high-level performance and personnel. Darnold discusses the balance between respecting the opponent’s defense and executing their own offensive game plan (0:55). He addresses the team’s running game, emphasizing continuous evolution and improvement (1:37). Darnold reflects on the importance of closing out games, referencing their recent win against Jacksonville (4:59). He also touches on the challenges of playing at Lumen Field, praising the impact of the “12s” – the Seahawks’ fan base (7:27). Lastly, Darnold emphasizes the value of knowing teammates’ backgrounds for building on-field chemistry (9:54).

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