Jaw-dropping stat that could doom Sam Darnold’s Seahawks season

The Seattle Seahawks are counting on new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak quite a bit in 2025. The trust is based on Kubiak's efficient system being able to change a wide receiver-centric explosive Seattle offense to one that chews clock, runs the ball well, and the quarterback doesn't turn the ball over.

That last part crippled the Seahawks offense at times in 2024. Former QB1 Geno Smith had far too many red zone interceptions in 2024, which likely led to an extra loss or two. Seattle's Week 9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, for instance, could be the game people point to about why the team missed the playoffs.

Smith threw two awful red zone interceptions when playing it safe and kicking field goals might have won the game.

Key statistic could imply the kind of success Sam Darnold might have with the Seattle Seahawks

Part of the problem for Smith is that he had a high rate of being pressured, though, as the Seahawks' offensive line was bad once again. Now Smith is gone and replaced by Sam Darnold, who has had one good season in his seven-year career, and that came last season with the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings' line wasn't great, either, but was not as bad as it seems based on pressure percentage.

That is because Darnold was able to do something he wouldn't have with the Seahawks, and probably won't be able to do in 2025, even if Seattle's offensive line is slightly better. In 2024, Darnold took an average of 3.08 seconds to throw a pass, third-most in the league.

In other words, he had the time he needed, much of the time, to work through progressions and complete passes. Even more telling, 73.2 percent of the passes Darnold threw came after he had the ball in his hands for 2.5 seconds.

Darnold also had an average of 2.6 seconds after snap before he was pressured, second-most in the league. Geno Smith had 2.4 seconds, so Smith was pressured faster than 73 percent of the passes thrown by Darnold. While Darnold was pressured 28 percent of the time to Smith's 24 percent, a lot of that stems from the fact that Darnold was able to hold on to the ball longer.

Even with the extra time, Darnold had a far higher bad pass percentage than Smith. 15 percent of Darnold's passes for off the mark, 15th in the league. Only 10.4 percent of Smith's throws were off target, best in the league.

For the Seahawks to have any chance to make the playoffs this coming season and then make a run once there, Sam Darnold is going to have to be better than he was last season, and something closer to how Geno Smith played. The question is whether Seattle's offensive line will give Darnold the time to be closer to Smith.