Seattle Seahawks fans were holding their breath when starting quarterback Sam Darnold limped off the field at the end of the team’s first drive of the season.
Darnold, who was later revealed to have suffered a hip injury, is coming off a season in which he further revived his career and took Seattle to the mountaintop as Super Bowl LX champions.
That quest for a Super Bowl repeat remains very much alive after the Seahawks bested the New England Patriots 13-10 in a rematch of that Super Bowl, and not just because backup quarterback Drew Lock came in to secure the win.
After the game, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald shared an update on Darnold’s condition.
While the exact injury remains undisclosed, “tests that ruled out a hip fracture” for Darnold, he said, as detailed by NFL reporter Tom Pelissero.
“Still more tests to come. But Macdonald sounded upbeat about the initial prognosis,” Pelissero added.
Macdonald’s “upbeat” attitude is surely heartening for Seahawks fans. While Lock performed well enough for the win, they’d surely prefer to have Darnold behind center for as much of the season as they can.
It’s also great news for Darnold, who was the No. 3 overall pick for the New York Jets in 2018 before spending years in the football wilderness with the Carolina Panthers and as a reserve for the San Francisco 49ers.
It wasn’t until the 2024 season with the Minnesota Vikings where he established himself as capable of being a starter on a contending NFL team, and last season’s Super Bowl win certainly cemented that he has the talent to take a team through the regular and post season.
Suffering a significant injury like a hip fracture just after reaching his professional pinnacle would have been a cruel twist for Darnold, but it seems likely that he’s avoided the worst-case scenario.
Now, he’ll have a chance to build on the success of the past two seasons once he gets back to full health.
How long will that be is impossible to say until the exact injury is identified, but Seahawks fans can breathe easier knowing that their quarterback — and their hopes of back to back titles — remain very much in play for the 2026 season.