{"id":1008410,"date":"2026-09-23T08:03:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T08:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1008410\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T08:03:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T08:03:26","slug":"no-the-seahawks-should-not-play-sam-darnold-in-week-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1008410\/","title":{"rendered":"No, the Seahawks Should Not Play Sam Darnold in Week 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Darnold went down<\/a> at the beginning of Week 1 against the New England Patriots. <\/p>\n

The Seahawks went on to win that game regardless, as the elite defense and solid play of backup Drew Lock were more than enough. Then in Week 2, the Seahawks destroyed the Arizona Cardinals <\/a>without Darnold. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s obvious that the Seahawks are better with Darnold- the quarterback has more wins than anybody over the last two seasons. But, it\u2019s nice to know that Lock is a perfectly capable backup. <\/p>\n

Darnold is expected to miss a couple of weeks, but the reports keep getting more and more positive. On Tuesday, it was even revealed that Darnold has \u201ca chance<\/a>\u201d to play against the Washington Commanders in Week 3. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s exciting, but there\u2019s no reason for the Seahawks to even risk bringing Darnold back too soon. <\/p>\n

Seahawks Can Beat Commanders Without Darnold \" Seattle Seahawks quarterback Drew Lock Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest- if Lock can beat the Patriots and Cardinals, he should be able to take down the Commanders. It\u2019s the NFL, and anything can happen, but the Seahawks are clearly talented enough to win another game without their star passer. <\/p>\n

Lock has been extremely efficient<\/a>, and he\u2019s avoided mistakes. Just managing the game should be enough to win, considering how elite this defense is. <\/p>\n

Plus, even if the Seahawks were to start Lock and lose, it wouldn\u2019t be the end of the world. Losing one early-season game and then having Darnold back for the rest of the season would be worth it. What good would it do to beat the Commanders but risk Darnold aggravating something? <\/p>\n

Commanders Won\u2019t Have Their Starter, Either \" Sep 20, 2026; Arlington, Texas, USA; Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) leaves the game with an apparent injury to his left arm during the second half against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images <\/p>\n

The Commanders won\u2019t be playing at full strength, either. Jayden Daniels suffered an elbow injury<\/a> in Week 2, and it\u2019s unknown when he\u2019ll be able to return. We know that Marcus Mariota will start in Week 3 against the Seahawks. <\/p>\n

Do the Seahawks really need Darnold to come back to beat a Mariota-led Commanders team? I don\u2019t think so. Let Lock get some more reps and play in one more game before giving the reins back to Darnold. <\/p>\n

I know fans and the team want to win every game, but long-term plays are important when you have a ceiling as high as the Seahawks do. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n

This story was originally published September 22, 2026 at 11:26 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Darnold went down at the beginning of Week 1 against the New England Patriots. The Seahawks went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1008411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[7,6,238,237,261,2635],"class_list":["post-1008410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seattle-seahawks","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-seahawks","tag-seattle","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-seattleseahawks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117319316881128660","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1008410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1008411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1008410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1008410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1008410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}