Jeremiah: Seahawks’ QB situation has ‘easy roadmap’

Through the first nine games of this season, the Seattle Seahawks’ record isn’t all that different from where it was a year ago when they won their second Super Bowl in franchise history.

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Seattle is sitting with a 5-4 record just over halfway through its 17-game schedule. It was 6-3 at the same point last year.

However, how the team got to each record is much different, especially when it comes to the quarterback situation.

Despite some turnover issues last year, including a four-interception game against the Los Angeles Rams, Sam Darnold’s starting role was never really in much doubt. But as Darnold has struggled with turnovers and Drew Lock has played well in relief of the injured starter in four games this season, a quarterback controversy seems to be brewing in the Pacific Northwest.

During his weekly appearance with Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Tuesday, NFL Media analyst and former league scout Daniel Jeremiah shared his thoughts on Seattle’s quarterback situation.

“It might be a quarterback controversy, I don’t think it’s a quarterback problem, if that makes sense,” he said.

With Darnold dealing with quad and rib injuries, Lock is in line to get his second straight start and third overall this season on Sunday when the Seahawks take on the Las Vegas Raiders in a Week 10 matchup. Head coach Mike Macdonald on Monday told reporters Darnold could return after Seattle’s Week 11 bye, which would potentially put him in line to start an important Week 12 clash against the 49ers.

But should Seattle go back to Darnold if Lock puts together another strong showing against Las Vegas?

Jeremiah doesn’t believe Darnold should be guaranteed to start coming out of the bye week and that “as long as you’re winning and playing well, I’m going to keep playing (Lock) until you see the signs that I think will come against better competition.”

He also believes that if Seahawks were to stick with Lock for longer than just this weekend against Las Vegas, they could frame it as giving Darnold a chance to fully heal rather than that he lost his starting role. That would also give the team a chance to see what Lock could do against stiffer competition.

Lock’s two starts this year came against the Arizona Cardinals’ 31st-ranked scoring defense, and this weekend he is set to face the Raiders’ 32nd-ranked scoring defense. The Week 1 win over the New England Patriots he led Seattle to following a glute injury sustained by Darnold on the opening drive is his only win against a defense that has bee at least average (New England is 15th in scoring defense). Four of the six starts Darnold finished came against teams with top-10 scoring defenses.

“I think that this an easy road map for the organization,” Jeremiah said. “… Put the quality of the opponent away and what’s been asked of him and all those things, Drew Lock has played well. So, he’s going to buy you time to get Sam 100% completely healthy and either Drew’s play kind of slips up and then it’s easy – we go right back to Sam. Or you have a situation where Drew, they start playing better opponents down the line and he starts playing winning football. And then you have a decision to make, which I don’t know if that is a bad decision (to have to make).”

Aside from the turnovers, Jeremiah said the differences he has between Darnold and Lock that he has ultimately seen are that Darnold is more mechanically sound and has an approach where he looks for the big play and then checks down to the smaller, whereas Lock for the most part looks for the smaller play first and then the big play.

The safe play won’t win another title

The Darnold-versus-Lock debate can be boiled down in its simplest form to: Which quarterback gives you the best chance to win, the one with the higher ceiling in Darnold or higher floor in Lock?

Jeremiah believes that the higher-floor quarterback (Lock in this scenario) is better at helping a team reach the playoffs, but in order to win it all, the higher-ceiling quarterback (Darnold) gives a team a better chance.

“In some ways, it’s like the baseball thing where you need starting pitching to navigate through 162 games and that’s really, really important. But then in the playoffs, maybe the bullpen is a little more important. It’s almost a different sport,” Jeremiah said. “I feel like it’s that way in the NFL, where the high-floor quarterback play is going to get you into the playoffs, but high-floor quarterback play is rarely going to win you a Super Bowl. You got to have somebody who can elevate in those moments to play at a higher level. That’s how I’ve always looked at it.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Listen to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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