The Seattle Seahawks took a risk when they decided to oblige quarterback Geno Smith and trade him this offseason. Smith might have made far too many red zone mistakes, but he was still productive. New QB1 Sam Darnold might make the same mistakes without the productivity.
General manager John Schneider hedged his best by drafting Jalen Milroe in the third round of the 2025 NFL draft, as well as bringing back veteran Drew Lock in free agency. If Darnold doesn't work out, there is a contingency plan.
Darnold did not exactly put any worries about his potential play in 2025 to rest after struggling through a lot of OTAs and minicamp. Meanwhile, Lock and Milroe looked pretty good. These all come with caveats, though.
Sam Darnold is likely making Seattle Seahawks fans nervous already
Of course, Seahawks fans have likely gotten used to their favorite team being slammed for signing Sam Darnold. He has spent seven seasons in the league so far, and only one has been anything close to good. That was in 2024 when Darnold played for the Minnesota Vikings, who had a bunch of great receivers and a gifted, offensive-minded head coach, Kevin O'Connell.
In a ranking of all presumed starting quarterbacks in 2025, Pro Football Focus (subscription required) ranked Danold at 26, just one spot ahead of former Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. PFF's write-up of Darnold is not wrong, however.
PFF's John Kosko writes, "Will it be the one we saw from 2018 to 2023, when his highest-graded season was just a 66.0 as he struggled with decision-making and offensive consistency? Or will it be the quarterback who earned an 85.8 grade over the first 17 weeks of the 2024 season and helped lead the Vikings to 14 wins?"
Also, of note, Pro Football Focus ranked Geno Smith, the new QB1 for the Las Vegas Raiders, at number 10.
About those caveats concerning Darnold, Lock, and Milroe in minicamp. Darnold was mostly going against the first unit for the defense, Lock was going against the second team, and Milroe, when he did get reps, was facing the third unit. The catch would be that Darnold was throwing to receivers such as Jaxon Smith-Njigba, while Lock was throwing to backups Cody White and Jake Bobo.
The underwhelming amount of play from Darnold was alarming, though. Head coach Mike Macdonald has already said there will be no quarterback drama for Seattle to start the season, and Darnold is the starter. But what if he fails quickly?
The hope is he doesn't, of course, but he also does not have a long history of success in the NFL. How long should he remain the starter, even if the Seahawks are winning low-scoring close games due to Seattle's defense being good?
If Darnold doesn't show improvement in training camp when the pads come on and tackling is permitted, Seahawks fans are rightfully going to worry about the season. If he reverts back to 2018-2023 Darnold, his PFF ranking of 26 might seem too high.
