{"id":904942,"date":"2026-05-30T03:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T03:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/904942\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T03:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T03:18:17","slug":"4-toughest-opponents-for-seahawks-qb-sam-darnold-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/904942\/","title":{"rendered":"4 toughest opponents for Seahawks QB Sam Darnold in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seattle Seahawks<\/a> quarterback Sam Darnold<\/a> will face several teams with elite defenses next season.<\/p>\n

Darnold threw for over 4,000 yards in his first season with the Seahawks<\/a> in 2025. The USC product led Seattle past the Houston Texans<\/a> and San Francisco 49ers<\/a>\u2019 dominant pass-rushing units, as well as the Indianapolis Colts<\/a>\u2019 secondary in the regular season, before downing the New England Patriots<\/a> and their stingy defensive backfield in the Super Bowl, but new challenges await in 2026.<\/p>\n

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The Seahawks are set to take on the Patriots in their home opener next season. The Patriots have talent up and down their roster on defense, with a swarming secondary consisting of cornerbacks Christian Gonzalez<\/a>, Carlton Davis III and Marcus Jones<\/a>, as well as safeties Kevin Byard<\/a> and Craig Woodson<\/a>. New England<\/a> will also bring pressure with Milton Williams<\/a> and Dre\u2019Mont Jones<\/a> going after Darnold.<\/p>\n

Seattle will face the Los Angeles Rams<\/a> in Weeks 16 and 18, with Los Angeles<\/a>\u2019 new All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie<\/a> set to take on the head-to-head matchup against the Seahawks\u2019 No. 1 receiver and reigning 2025 AP Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon<\/a> Smith-Njigba.<\/p>\n

The Rams will pose a significant challenge for Darnold in the passing game next season. Los Angeles will be perhaps the toughest opponent that Seattle faces on the year, at a critical juncture of the season, where playoff positioning as well as the division crown may be decided by who wins those two games.<\/p>\n

Darnold will have to be prepared to withstand the onslaught that the 49ers will bring next season, with Nick Bosa<\/a> and the returning Fred Warner<\/a> set to make life difficult for the California native. The Seahawks will play the 49ers twice in Weeks 5 and 12.<\/p>\n

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The Broncos<\/a> have an all-around defensive front that Darnold will be tasked with operating against. Denver<\/a> is led by 2024 AP Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II<\/a> and first-team All-Pro DT Zach Allen<\/a>. Darnold will need to be weary of oncoming pressure and find his receivers in the right spots to pick up a big road win on Thursday Night Football in Week 6.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks schedule: 4 toughest opponents for QB Sam Darnold in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold will face several teams with elite defenses next season. Darnold threw for over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":904943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[232,6032,1846,231,10559,7,592,253,392,18870,4861,1014,58,7885,7891,1167,249,6,1515,8206,1878,252,238,237,261,2635,4223,1626],"class_list":["post-904942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seattle-seahawks","tag-broncos","tag-christian-gonzalez","tag-craig-woodson","tag-denver","tag-dremont-jones","tag-football","tag-fred-warner","tag-houston-texans","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-jaxon","tag-kevin-byard","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-marcus-jones","tag-milton-williams","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl","tag-nick-bosa","tag-patrick-surtain-ii","tag-sam-darnold","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-seahawks","tag-seattle","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-seattleseahawks","tag-trent-mcduffie","tag-zach-allen"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116661367848588054","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904942","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=904942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}