Keep Sam Darnold secret

Seahawks fans react to Seattle's 23-23 tie and Jalen Milroe's preseason debut

We don’t know if Sam Darnold will be good, bad, or just serviceable enough to get the Seahawks to the playoffs this season. That is a question left to be answered in the coming months and one thing I’ve learned in this business is that there’s nothing to be gained from confidently predicting how players will perform in new situations. However, something that Mike Macdonald can do for Darnold right now that would be best for everybody is to maintain that air of mystery blanketing Seattle’s offense for the past six months and sit his starting quarterback until Week 1.

There is nothing to gain and everything to lose by starting Darnold against the Chiefs next week.

Whether or not Macdonald is actually going to start Darnold next Friday is not clear, but the coach indicated this week that the Seahawks are going to try to match Andy Reid’s philosophy of a “blended approach” to mix in starters occassionally during the preseason which includes the expectation that Kansas City will be full-go against Seattle. This means that Seahawks will play starters in preseason Week 2, but Macdonald didn’t say that he would necessarily play all of them and sitting Darnold does make more sense than putting the team at risk just because “that’s what the Chiefs do”.

“I don’t think there’s a scientific tried and true, ‘You have to do it this way’ method,” Macdonald said. “You look at the studies and things the league tells you, things that we handle in house. The rule of thumb is you want two to three pretty good intense exposures before you kick it off. You can manufacture that in practice with borderline live periods. It’s hard to do that in house, so I think that’s where the joint practices come from, where it’s a little bit more of a controlled environment, but still intense, which is important. And then some teams handle it by playing their starters in preseason games, and you can get it done that way. We’re doing the blended approach this year. Coach [Andy] Reid, they have a history of playing their starters in the game, so our guys will have an opportunity to go next week, and then we have the practice against Green Bay.”

When Macdonald mentions 2-3 intense exposures before Week 1, we know of at least two of those:

• Next week’s game against the Chiefs

• The following week’s joint practice against the Packers

But if Macdonald considers Seattle’s live scrimmage last week as an “intense exposure”, then Darnold will have had multiple opportunities to simulate a real game prior to playing against the 49ers on September 7th without playing against the Chiefs. That sounds like enough to me and I’m not even sure any of it matters that much when you consider the many examples of quarterbacks who had great seasons without preseason exposure.

To many of you this argument will sound like unnecessary panic and an overreaction, which is fair because this IS an overreaction. The most likely outcome of Darnold starting next week is that he gets 1-2 series, is fine, gets replaced by Drew Lock, end of story. That’s almost certainly what will happen.

It is also not necessary.

The Seahawks would be doing something that will not increase their chances of winning football games this season while taking the risk that a) you’re exposing your starting quarterback to possible injury (who is that I see opposite of Anthony Bradford? Oh, is that Chris Jones! Nice!) and b) pulling back the curtain on this new relationship between QB, Team, and OC that is thus far still a total mystery to outsiders.

And for what? Because fans are getting antsy to see Seattle’s $100 million ($37 million really) investment? Because it’s against the Chiefs? Because Darnold wants to play? Because now that people have seen Jalen Milroe, Darnold should have something to prove?

Darnold does not have anything to prove and if anything starting him against the Chiefs puts Macdonald at risk of having to defend Darnold (again) if he doesn’t have a perfect night.

“Well, shouldn’t he have a perfect night if he’s the starter?”

No. This is a couple of series in a preseason game. It is NONSENSE. It is the football equivalent of static on your television at 3 A.M..

And then what happens if Darnold throws an interception in the first half, followed by Milroe scoring a touchdown against Ajani Carter, Coziah Izzard, and Major Williams (these are the names of Chiefs third-stringers that I had to look up) in the fourth quarter? “Oh my God, the Seahawks are making a huge mistake by starting Darnold over Milroe!”

No, it’s just a ridiculous exhibition of a football game and there is no circumstance in which Darnold could play so bad and Milroe could play so good that Macdonald would make a change before the season.

Besides, if that’s something you wish WOULD happen, then you would not be rooting for Darnold to start. You should instead be rooting for JALEN MILROE to start!

Seahawks fans who want the best possible show on Friday should be asking for Milroe to start against Kansas City — with the full complement of Seattle’s supporting cast for the first two series — and that would also do so much more lifting in the debate over “Is this guy a good quarterback or is he just a good athlete playing quarterback?”

Then pull the rest of the starters and let Milroe play the entire game. Darnold isn’t going to not be the starter in Week 1, Lock has nothing to prove (and if Darnold gets hurt, it won’t help Milroe, it’ll only make Lock QB1), and there’s nothing unusual these days about a third-string quarterback taking every snap in a preseason game; the Rams let Stetson Bennett take every snap in the ENTIRE PRESEASON last year and most of them the year before.

(Good news) Bennett is not good and that’s fine for L.A.. The Rams have won the division over the past two years without their starting quarterback playing in the preseason and Matthew Stafford will barely even get practice reps this time, let alone sitting out another preseason.

For the anxious, don’t worry. Sam Darnold’s Seahawks career will start in one month. It’s not a long time. Players started reporting to training camp three weeks ago and that feels like yesterday. The season will start before we know it and IF Darnold is bad when Seattle removes the gift wrap, then that is unfortunate…But it won’t be because Macdonald didn’t give him 11 snaps against the Chiefs on August 15th.

Those 11 snaps won’t do anything to make the Seahawks better, but in this sport it only takes one snap to make everything terrible.

Your Seahawks-Raiders postgame reactions

I asked for postgame reactions on Thursday and in less than 24 hours you’ve already left over 70 of them. Great work.

If you left a comment and I don’t repost it, it doesn’t mean you failed to unearth a fascinating nugget of wisdom. There was a lot to look over and I guarantee that there were tons of great reactions in the post that I won’t be able to copy here so go back there and read them!

(Some comments edited for space and clarity)

First comment: zezinhom400

It feels apt to highlight whoever comments first, which is zezinhom400 this time:

Thought our mostly-2nd team looked remarkably good. By that I mean, clean execution and without question better-prepared than the Raiders, who kinda reminded me of the relatively sloppy Seahawks in Carroll’s later years, not at all impressive. Felt like our 2’s can play against Raiders’ 1’s — which may not be saying much but makes me feel better about our bench strength.

Seems we have a bunch of RB’s which is nice. Really liked what I saw from Horton and sorta disappointed with Brady Russell.

SSJ: We talk about players using preseason as a chance to do something good to stand out, but Russell is an example of how doing something bad is even more impactful. Nobody would bring up Russell at all if he didn’t have the holding penalty, but this is exactly the “ahh cut his ass” time of year because 40% of this roster has to go.

Isaac B: Hard to say exactly what they were doing with the OL, and the RG competition. I got the feeling they may have had Bradford starting this week, then have Haynes start next week. The reason I say that is because Olu and Sundell are also competing for C, and they had Sundell in through the first half.

SSJ: I came down hard on Christian Haynes on Thursday and you could be 100% right, Isaac, but my impression on Olu Oluwatimi sitting in favor of Jalen Sundell was that Olu is injured. Brady Henderson mentioned that Olu didn’t dress for the game. And if you’re competing for the right guard job, who would you rather be right now:

The guy who just played with all the starters (minus Charles Cross) or the guy who played in the second half at left guard? As far as I know, there’s no indication yet that either Anthony Bradford or Haynes had a good night.

The Seahawks are so far getting performances at right guard and center that would be expected of a team that made no effort to improve.

Jake: OutszOutszOutszOutszOutszOutszOutszOutszOutszOutszOutszOutszOutsz

SSJ: As a fanbase that hasn’t had a fullback to root for in a long time, Robbie Outsz is a reminder that it is really easy to root for a good fullback.

Sea Hawk Run! The most encouraging plays were a few where the offense snapped into place quickly and executed with machine precision. That shows good coaching and good reception by the players. Yeah, they had pre-snap penalties too, but we can see the potential. I would have liked to have seen more run attempts early, but the screen game worked well.

SSJ: And I expect an inordinate amount of presnap penalties from Klint Kubiak’s offense in the first half of the season, although maybe less than the norm for a new OC because by now most players should be used to pre-snap motion.

BEASTMODE808: Zabel looked legit whole first quarter. Didn't follow much after that but watched every play of first 2 drives and he stoned his guy every time. Very encouraging even though preseason

SSJ: Nor would there be much worth following. Here’s a breakdown of Grey Zabel’s night from Brian Baldinger. The Seahawks have a good one at left guard.

Scott M: I was so disappointed in Damien Martinez...he looked flat.

SSJ: While there is still a lot of “football” left between now and final cuts, in terms of practices and decisions and two games, it is funny to look back at a hyped offseason and remember that Martinez was only a seventh round pick. The separation between him and Jacardia Wright or George Holani as prospects is basically nothing, so if I was one of those running backs I would definitely not be afraid that Martinez has a spot totally locked.

Chuck Turtleman: I feel confident that Tory Horton is not Kasen Williams or Jazz Ferguson. He looks like WR #3 to me. And his ceiling is high. He's been doing what he did last night in practice against the 1s. I was hestiant to go all-in on a rookie WR again, but last night sealed the deal for me.

SSJ: The amount of Tory Horton content there was on Friday felt a little insane…

If I continue to give my opinion to temper expectations of a rookie fifth round receiver that it’ll wear on some people and feel like I have something against Horton. I am a fan of Tory Horton but I think there is a medium that exists somewhere between Kasen Williams and Tyler Lockett…

And yes even when it was Kasen Williams there was a MASSIVE FEVER FOR HIM. It was intense and you couldn’t stop it and it was also the argument that “well those guys in the past were those guys but this guy is different than those guys this time”. The only thing that stopped Kasen Williams was…the regular season.

But I would agree that Horton is better than Kasen Williams. For me, I just can’t wait to skip this portion of the year and get to real games because for many receivers the flip between preseason and the regular season is dramatic. If Horton is one of those guys who carries it over into real games, I can’t wait for that so I can stop bringing up the history of day 3 players.

Bryant: My two gripes with the game are minor: 1) who gave that generous spot to the Raiders on what looked to be a failed 4th down attempt? 2) Why have Milroe throw a medium pass on 4th and inches when a first down seals a win?

SSJ: Yeah, the officiating was bad. Having to review the Holani touchdown was absurd because it was so obvious in real time and Lock’s interception was maybe not a pick. I assume Macdonald would have challenged the fourth down in the regular season and definitely would have won it. My thought on the Milroe play call was the same, but basically thinking that in a regular season game he would only be there to run or pitch a short pass. I think that the Milroe read-option will be very hard to stop on short-yard to gain plays, but Kubiak does need to establish the threat to pass.

My guess is that Milroe will throw a few passes early in the season so that it is not so obvious when he’s on the field that he’s going to run.

Dutcher: This was the most satisfying tie I ever experienced.

What is, “Things kids want to hear their dad say on Christmas”?

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