RENTON, Wash. — Sam Darnold‘s oblique injury might have fueled nervousness inside team headquarters when it happened two days before the Seattle Seahawks‘ divisional round victory, but general manager John Schneider said Thursday that Darnold himself wasn’t worried.
Schneider said that Darnold “hasn’t flinched” over his injury this postseason, not even while playing through it for the second week in a row last Sunday, when he threw three touchdowns passes in the NFC Championship Game to help the Seahawks punch their ticket to Super Bowl LX.
“I think we were all more panicked in what was going on than he was,” Schneider said. “He was kind of looking at us like we had three heads, like, ‘What’s everybody so worried about?’ He’s like, ‘I’ll be good.'”
Darnold was hurt early in practice on Jan. 15, when he felt something in his left side while throwing. He was listed as questionable for their divisional round game against the San Francisco 49ers but made it clear to the team and to reporters that he expected to play.
With the Seahawks controlling that game from start to finish, Darnold attempted only 17 passes, completing 12 of them for 124 yards and a touchdown before he gave way to Drew Lock with nine minutes remaining in their 41-6 win.
Darnold got a much tougher test last week against the Los Angeles Rams, who had intercepted him six times in their two regular-season meetings. In the biggest game of his eight-year NFL career, Darnold completed 25 of 36 attempts for 346 yards and three touchdowns, with all three of his TD passes coming under pressure.
The Seahawks won 31-27 to advance to the fourth Super Bowl in franchise history.
Coach Mike Macdonald said afterward that Darnold “shut a lot of people up” with his performance, and that it should go down as one of the best in playoff history, given that Darnold had “barely” practiced or thrown the ball that week while continuing to manage his oblique injury.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Darnold received pain-killing injections before both playoff games.
“I haven’t seen a lot of quarterbacks not throw a ball and then go out and play like that,” Schneider said, “and we’ve been blessed to be around some pretty good ones.”
The Seahawks listed Darold as a limited participant both days this week, as has been the case on every injury report they’ve released since his injury. Seattle did not practice Wednesday and held a walk-through Thursday, so both injury reports were estimations.
