Sam Darnold was asked this past weekend how his leadership is starting to show among the Seahawks.
The new starting quarterback didn’t truly answer the question.
“I’m just going to continue to be myself,” Darnold said Saturday following the team’s fan-fest stadium practice at Lumen Field. “I’m not going to stray away from that or try to be someone I’m not. I’m going to lead the way that I do, the way that I lead every single day, and that’s just working hard, trying to set an example. And if I need to say anything, I will.”
The quarterback Seattle signed in March to a three-year contract worth up to $100.5 million to replace traded Geno Smith didn’t need to say anything Monday. His leadership showed during a dust-up in the 11th practice of training camp.
During an 11-on-11 scrimmage, linebacker Derick Hall rushed off his edge and ran into Darnold after the QB threw a pass. Hall grabbed Darnold around the arms in a bear hug. It was as if Hall was showing coaches and teammates he would have sacked the QB, had he been allowed to hit Darnold.
Hall putting his hands on their quarterback riled up Darnold’s offensive linemen. Rookie first-round draft choice Grey Zabel was among the first of the many blockers who reacted to Hall’s grab of Darnold by jumping the outside linebacker.
Darnold’s protectors were defending their new leader, in an emphatic way.
Pushing ensued. Almost the entire team was in a mosh pit of blue jerseys (offense) standing off against white (defense).
Defensive coordinator Aden Durde wisely grabbed Hall. The coach escorted him out of the crowd of teammates, to the sideline.
Durde was running the defense, calling its plays, because head coach Mike Macdonald was away from the team Monday morning. A team spokesman said it was a personal reason and that the Seahawks expected the 37-year-old Macdonald back as early as Monday afternoon. Macdonald will be back leading practice Tuesday.
The spat was another involving Hall in this camp. This one subsided quickly.
Immediately after practice, assistant head coach Leslie Frazier called all the players around him, as Macdonald usually does at that point each day. A former head coach of the Minnesota Vikings and Super Bowl-champion defensive back on the 1985 Chicago Bears, Frazier spoke for a couple moments, at times emphasizing his points with his arms and hands.
Then Hall addressed his teammates. They were on a knee all around him, listening.
Boye Mafe, Hall’s opposite outside linebacker, described some of what Frazier said to the team. “Obviously, we had coaches that had stuff to handle,” Mafe said, “so we were talking about what we’re doing today, and that everything was OK. And making sure no one was awry and we’re all in a good headspace.”
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) reacts to a pass during training camp at Virginia Mason Athletic Center on Friday, July 25, 2025, in Renton, Wash. Brian Hayes/bhayes@thenewstribune.com
Sam Darnold’s got ‘edge to him’
This spring into summer, multiple Seahawks, on offense and defense, plus their head coach have used the same term to describe Darnold: “He’s got some s*** to him.”
“Yeah, he’s got some stuff to him,” Macdonald said in June of last year’s 14-3 starter for the Minnesota Vikings.
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold (14) evades Seattle Seahawks linebacker Uchenna Nwosu (10) during the first quarter of the first quarter of the game at Lumen Field, on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024, in Seattle, Wash. Brian Hayes/bhayes@thenewstribune.com
Asked if that surprised him, the coach who lost to Darnold and the Vikings in a game at Lumen Field last December laughed.
“No,” Macdonald said. “We went against him. We felt it.”
“The thing you love about Sam is, he’s just a dude. He’s one of the guys,” Macdonald said. “There’s a sense that he’s one of the guys. He’s right there with him…
“But there’s some s*** to him. “Like, don’t mess with him. He’s got that edge to him, that competitiveness. And the guys respect that.”
Darnold was born and raised in San Clemente, California. He studied at and played for USC. He hosted many of his new Seahawks teammates in the Los Angeles area this summer, before camp began.
To some who don’t know him — say, new teammates— he’s carries the surface stereotype of being being a laid-back, SoCal dude.
This is the 28-year-old Darnold’s eighth NFL season. He’s on his fifth team, after starting for the Jets, Panthers and Vikings and as Brock Purdy’s backup two years ago with the 49ers.
Smith, 35, was a strong, at-times fiery leader in his three seasons as the Seahawks’ starting quarterback, until they traded him to Pete Carroll’s Las Vegas Raiders in March.
How quickly Darnold asserts his leadership is a subplot to Seattle’s 2025 training camp, and its season.
Teammates having his back Monday showed he’s progressing well in that regard.
Even while his words Saturday weren’t as telling.
“Yeah, I’m going to be myself throughout this entire process,” Darnold said last weekend. “If guys think I have edge, great.
“I’m going to joke around, laugh around with the quarterbacks and everyone else in the locker room when I can. When you’re out there on the field, and the plays called, and you have to get the huddle straight, and you’re trying to get all 11 guys on the same page, you’ve got to have a little something to you. “And that’s just what I try to do when I’m out there.”
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) throws the ball during training camp at Virginia Mason Athletic Center on Friday, July 25, 2025, in Renton, Wash. Brian Hayes/bhayes@thenewstribune.com
Kenneth Walker out again
Lead running back Kenneth Walker missed his third consecutive practice. He has “soreness in his foot,” Macdonald said last weekend.
Zach Charbonnet again was the fill-in lead back.
With Walker out and Kenny McIntosh on injured reserve and out for the season, George Holani has moved up to third-down back with Darnold and the starting offense. That’s particularly so in 2-minute drills. Coaches like Holani’s pass-blocking and receiving, in particular. He played in five games last season as an elevated practice-squad player and undrafted rookie from Boise State.
New long snapper
With Chris Stoll out indefinitely since the weekend with back issue, the Seahawks signed 34-year-old long snapper Zach Triner. He’s played in 84 games over six NFL seasons, five for Tampa Bay and last season for Miami.
Seattle also signed 2024 rookie free agent Michael Dowell. He was on the team’s practice squad in 2024.
The Seahawks put safety AJ Finley on injured reserve two days after he sustained a major knee injury defending a deep pass into the end zone at the fan-fest stadium practice. The team also waived rookie free agent linebacker Seth Coleman.
Extra points
* Starting weakside inside linebacker Tyrice Knight left practice midway through it. A trainer wrapped his right leg. Patrick O’Connell replaced Knight as the man next to middle linebacker Ernest Jones.
* Monday was newly-engaged Jake Bobo’s 27th birthday. Teammate Steven Sims yelled “Hey, happy birthday, Jake!” across the field to his fellow wide receiver. Bobo got a big smile from that.
* Sims, former with the Baltimore Ravens, didn’t practice. He and Tory Horton, the emerging rookie fifth-round pick, have been the lead punt returners so far in camp.
* Horton got first-team reps with Darnold, Cooper Kupp and Jaxon Smith-Njigba for the third consecutive practice.
* Eighth-year veteran Marquez Valdes-Scantling again was with Bobo catching passes from Drew Lock on the second team.