The Seattle Seahawks are standing behind Sam Darnold despite his recent struggles, but head coach Mike Macdonald’s decision to keep the quarterback as the starter puts the spotlight on a bigger question: Can Seattle fix an offense that has become increasingly vulnerable to costly mistakes?
Macdonald made it clear Friday that he is not considering replacing Darnold with backup Drew Lock. Speaking during a radio appearance, the Seahawks coach acknowledged that his quarterback needs to protect the football better but expressed confidence that the team can find solutions with Darnold under center.
“Sam’s played great football for us this year the majority of the time,” Macdonald said, according to CBS Sports. “There’s other times he needs to take care of the football but I think these are solutions we can find with Sam as our QB.”
The support comes after another damaging performance. In Thursday night’s 17-14 overtime loss to the Denver Broncos, Darnold completed 27 of 51 passes for 278 yards and threw two interceptions. One of those turnovers helped set up Denver’s game-winning field goal.
Through six games, Darnold has thrown seven touchdown passes and seven interceptions, while completing 60.4% of his attempts and averaging 6.9 yards per attempt. Those numbers represent a significant decline from his more efficient performance during Seattle’s Super Bowl-winning campaign.
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