Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald Speaks out on QB Sam Darnold After Game-Winning FG Drive
Posted September 26, 2025
Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald raved about the play of quarterback Sam Darnold after the team's Week 4 win.
Quarterback Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks appeared ready to cruise to a Week 4 victory against their division rival, the Arizona Cardinals, on Thursday night. That is, until a late 14-point Cardinals rally threatened to send the contest into overtime.
But as the saying goes in sports, Darnold and the Seahawks didn’t flinch.
Despite just 28 seconds left in the fourth quarter and only one timeout remaining, the Seahawks were aggressive on their last possession of regulation. As a result, a 22-yard completion from Darnold to receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba placed the Seahawks on the fringe of field goal-range.
In the final seconds, Seattle kicker Jason Myers nailed a 52-yard field goal to propel the Seahawks to a 23-20 victory.
Seattle’s final drive started at the team’s 40-yard line because Arizona’s kickoff didn’t first bounce in the landing zone. That helped allow the Seahawks to be aggressive even though there was under 30 seconds left in the half.
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald, though, suggested Darnold’s play was an even bigger influence on the team’s aggressiveness.
“Sam is playing out of his mind right now,” Macdonald told reporters. “When you see him, he’s just like such a cool customer.
“He’s a guy on a mission; he’s just so determined for us to be a great team and a great offense. He’s doing a great job leading us.”
Sam Darnold’s Strong Start for Seahawks
The veteran quarterback experienced, by far, the best season of his career with the Minnesota Vikings last season. Fresh off the career year, the Seahawks signed Darnold to a three-year, $100.5 million deal.
The question for 2025, though, was would 2024 prove to be a career year or a breakout campaign for the quarterback.
Through the first quarter of the 2025 season, it’s looking more like a breakout campaign.
Darnold entered Thursday with a 70.3% completion percentage and a nine yards per attempt average in the first three weeks of 2025. He also had four touchdown passes versus two interceptions.
Against the Cardinals in Week 4, Darnold was very efficient again, going 18 for 26 with 242 passing yards and a touchdown. While he took three sacks, Darnold averaged 9.3 yards per pass.
Last season, the 28-year-old posted his first 4,000-yard season and 30-touchdown campaign. After four games in 2024, he had a 68.9% completion percentage and 8.8 yards per pass average with 11 touchdowns.
While Darnold has just five touchdown passes after four games this season, he’s posted a 70% completion percentage and 9.05 yards per attempt.
Darnold Experiencing Success Without Kevin O’Connell
In 2024, Darnold led the Vikings to a 14-3 mark. Clearly, he found a home in O’Connell’s offense.
Over the first six seasons of his career, Darnold went 21-35 as a starter.
Some pundits criticized the Seahawks this past offseason for believing in Darnold outside of O’Connell’s offense. But the quarterback is proving those doubters wrong.
He’s led the Seahawks to three consecutive victories after a Week 1 loss. The only defeat he’s suffered with Seattle was at the hands of the undefeated San Francisco 49ers.
Darnold is now 17-4 in his last 21 regular season starts. He only needs four more wins this season to match the number of victories he earned as a starter in his first six campaigns.
Darnold is clearly becoming the reason his team succeeds, not just the product of great coaching. The Seahawks are huge beneficiaries to this fact. Darnold is leading them to contention in the NFC West.
Broncos' Payton backs Bo Nix amid struggles: 'Just keep firing'
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton defended quarterback Bo Nix's mechanics Thursday with the promise that big plays will come. But Payton said the offense's biggest problem is that it hasn't found its identity, and that has been affecting Nix, as well.
The Broncos have lost back-to-back games on the last play -- to the Indianapolis Colts and the Los Angeles Chargers -- and Nix's play has been scrutinized because of the offense's struggles. He is 25th in the league in QBR (41.8), and, according to NextGen, his tight-window completion percentage is 16th (37.5%), tied with recently benched Giants quarterback Russell Wilson.
Nix narrowly missed multiple potential big plays in the loss to the Chargers on Sunday, all on overthrows, including one to a wide-open Courtland Sutton in the fourth quarter that would have likely sealed a win. The Broncos also had seven possessions in which they totaled 9 or fewer yards and four possessions in which they had 1 yard or fewer.
Asked Thursday about Nix's mechanics through three games, Payton encouraged him to "just keep firing."
"He's going to hit plenty of those. ... [And] there's times I'm sure when we sit and watch the tape [there are things to repair]," Payton said. "But one of the things that's a gift are his off-schedule throws, but you just want to be careful of how much you tell him. When you settle into certain plays, there's a rhythm to the mechanics. ... But overall, I think [the ball] is coming out well.''
Payton said the Broncos' real struggle is more of a big-picture situation. The team is 27th in third-down conversions and average yards to go on third down, and 19th in big plays (runs of 10 or more yards and passes of 20 or more yards) and passing yards per game. The Broncos are also one of the most penalized offenses in the league with 14.
Though they are eighth in the league in rushing yards per game (129.0), they are 20th in attempts. Payton said it's all part of an offensive rhythm and "identity'' the team hasn't found. He said it's on the coaches to help the team establish one.
The Broncos face the Cincinnati Bengals (2-1) on Monday night in Empower Field at Mile High.
"Ultimately, you want to go out there and hit every single one of them," Nix said of the missed big plays. "I've yet to actually play a game where I've hit all of them. But I'm working on that, and I feel confident that one day I can go out there and do it. And that may be crazy on my part, but I truly believe it."
