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<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n1 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n
The Seahawks held a walk-through Friday, as they usually do the day before a game. Macdonald gave a false answer when asked if Darnold threw during the session. While the coach spoke to reporters on the sidelines of the team’s indoor practice facility, Darnold and Lock were walking down the field with wide receiver Jake Bobo. Darnold appeared to make easy, underhanded tosses.<\/p>\n
Macdonald was asked if Darnold was better Friday physically.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, he says he’s feeling better,” Macdonald said. “But he talked to him. He is confident that he will be able to play. We feel the same way.”<\/p>\n
Any idea if he could be limited Saturday?<\/p>\n
“Yeah, yeah. It’s possible,” Macdonald said. “I think right now he’s confident that he’ll be able to go and do his thing 100 percent. So are we. But with these things, something can change in the middle of the game or something can happen in the game. So we have to roll with it.”<\/p>\n
Lock, a seventh-year veteran with a 10-18 record in 28 career starts, is Darnold’s backup. Jalen Milroe, a third-round pick, is Seattle’s QB3. Milroe has been inactive as a healthy player for the past 12 games, though he has continued to be useful as a third-string emergency quarterback.<\/p>\n
Darnold’s injury happened Thursday. He told reporters that he “felt a little something” in the oblique on his left side while throwing during routines in the air, and that he stopped practicing as a precaution. Seattle listed him as a limited participant that day.<\/p>\n
“I just didn’t want to push it,” Darnold said. “It wasn’t a day to push it. It just happened. I just went inside, got some rehab, and I feel like I’ll be ready to go Saturday.”<\/p>\n
Darnold was asked what percentage he thinks he might not play on Saturday.<\/p>\n
“The percentage is very low,” he said. “Probably close to zero.”<\/p>\n
Darnold said he hasn’t dealt with a groin injury and will get more treatment between now and the game, adding: “We’re going to attack it the next few days and be ready to go Saturday.”<\/p>\n
Aside from Darnold’s questionable status, the only Seattle players named to the game are tight end Elijah Arroyo, linebacker Chazz Surratt and Josh Jones, all backups ruled out. Left tackle Charles Cross and safety Coby Bryant will return after missing three and two games, respectively.<\/p>\n
Cross was ruled out on Wednesday due to a fresh knee injury but returned to full participation on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“It just gets a little hectic in practice,” Macdonald said of Cross. “So we’re working on it. He’s ready to go. It’s more of a defense than anything.”<\/p>\n
Darnold, signed by the Seahawks in March after trading Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders, is set to make the second playoff start of his eight-year NFL career. He also echoed Macdonald’s words earlier this week about not getting lost in praising the postseason.<\/p>\n
“We are here [as] just another week, another game,” Darnold said. “… We have good guys in that locker room, mature leaders at every position group. So everyone is ready to go, attacking the church, as usual, and getting ready to go against a good 49ers team that has been rolling, and we are very excited to go against them. “<\/p>\n
Darnold and the Seahawks beat the 49ers in Week 18 at Levi’s Stadium to win the NFC West and secure the conference’s top seed. With that win, Seattle finished the regular season 14-3, the same record Darnold posted last year with the Minnesota Vikings en route to his first Pro Bowl selection.<\/p>\n
He also made the Pro Bowl this year, completing 67.7% of his attempts for 4,048 yards and 25 touchdown passes while also committing an NFL-high 20 turnovers.<\/p>\n
Darnold lost his first playoff game last January when he was sacked nine times in a loss to the Los Angeles Rams. He said the Week 18 win for the 49ers was like a playoff game because of all the difficulty and how loud the crowd was at Levi’s Stadium.<\/p>\n
The Seahawks will have the opportunity to play at home in the rematch.<\/p>\n
“Being able to use cadence is going to be huge, and having 12 of us making noise when they’re upset is important,” Darnold said. “So, it’s going to be a great situation and something we’re all looking forward to.”<\/p>\n
This will be the first playoff game at Lumen Field with fans in the stands since January 2017. The Seahawks’ other home playoff game since then was at the end of the 2020 COVID-19 season, where they lost in the wild card round to the Rams in an empty stadium.<\/p>\n
“We know Lumen is going to rock,” Darnold said. “It’s an important game. We don’t distort it at all. We understand the impact of the game. Playoffs, it’s amazing to play in games like this, especially in January. But yeah, we’re treating this week like any other week, and we’re excited about it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brady HendersonJan 16, 2026, 05:49 PM ET Shut up Brady Henderson is a reporter for NFL Nation and covers the Seattle Seahawks for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2017 after covering the Seattle Sports 710-AM team. RENTON, Wash. — Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said Friday he’s “real hopeful” Sam Darnold will play Saturday against …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2554,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions\/2554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}