Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said Wednesday that Drew Lock will start in place of an injured Sam Darnold, then opened the door to a roster move at the position. "We might be adding a quarterback," Macdonald said, with Lock still working back from an elbow injury as the 4-4 Seahawks get ready to host the Arizona Cardinals at Lumen Field.
Darnold injured his quad late in Monday night's 34-17 loss to the Chicago Bears. Macdonald said he will miss this week and is week to week, but he won't go on injured reserve. Jalen Milroe will back up Lock.
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The question for Seattle is how much Lock can throw. Macdonald said during his Wednesday press conference that Lock aggravated the elbow during a rain practice and hasn't thrown much since. He will throw throughout the week, but the Seahawks plan to manage his workload.
"He's not going to take 8,000 throws," Macdonald said, adding that Lock and Milroe will split reps for a period and that the Seahawks will "take it kind of day by day at this point."
That's where the possible addition comes in. With the starter limited in practice, Seattle needs a third arm just to get through a normal week of work, and the trade deadline gives it options beyond the practice squad. We've already looked at what the Seahawks need most at the deadline.
Macdonald also used the moment to praise Darnold, who he said cracked a rib on the second play of the Bears game and played the rest of the night without mentioning it. Macdonald called him "tough as nails." As we wrote earlier, Macdonald didn't know about the rib until after the game.
If Lock's elbow holds up, he has history on his side. He filled in for Darnold over the first two weeks of the season, and the Seahawks won both games, with Lock completing 35 of 48 passes for 422 yards, four touchdown passes and no interceptions. One of those wins was a 31-7 rout of Arizona in Week 2, when Lock threw for 235 yards and three touchdown passes.
Darnold has thrown for 1,478 yards with 10 touchdown passes and nine interceptions in his seven starts, so Lock's numbers don't represent a major step back if he's healthy. That's the condition the Seahawks can't control, and it's why the quarterback room might look different by Sunday.
Seattle has bigger problems than one position, too. Macdonald said the feeling after Monday's loss was that "that wasn't the best version of us," and the offensive line is still settling in after the arrival of Quenton Nelson, who Macdonald said "looked like Quenton Nelson" in his Seahawks debut.
A win over Arizona would get Seattle back above .500 heading into the second half of the season, and Lock may only need to be the quarterback he was in September to make that happen.
This story was originally published by Athlon on Nov 5, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add Athlon as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
