Sam Darnold injury update: what Mike Macdonald said Monday, in text

Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said on Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, that he thinks quarterback Sam Darnold could return after the team’s bye week, and that Drew Lock, who started Sunday’s 17-3 win over Arizona, has an oblique injury but is expected to play this week. The team published the press conference as video. This page puts each injury answer into text, linked to the point in the video where it was said.

Caution: a coach’s comments are not a medical report. The team’s official practice and game-status reports later in the week decide who plays.

Player by player

Player	What Macdonald said	Video position
Sam Darnold, quarterback	Asked whether Darnold could be back after the bye: “I think so. I think so. Yeah. Making progress. … we’re going to need some more time”	1:33
Drew Lock, quarterback	“he has some sort of oblique. … we’re going to put a game plan together and we expect him to be able to play.”	1:33
Charles Cross and Leonard Williams	“we haven’t ruled anybody out yet. But I think everybody needs to make progress. So, nobody’s in, nobody’s out.”	0:00
Leonard Williams	A reporter described the injury as a stinger and asked whether more serious possibilities had been ruled out: “have we ruled anything out? No.” He added, “You just hope it gets better.” and “if Leo can play, he’s not a type of guy that needs a ton of reps”	0:31
Quenton Nelson	Asked whether surgery was imminent: “I believe it was today actually.” On the timetable: “we’re not put on IR yet. So I think that gives you the timetable of what we expect. Consider it week to week I guess best way to put it.”	17:48

More on the quarterbacks

Subject	What Macdonald said	Video position
How Lock played on Sunday	“Drew played really well. … thought he was efficient. He came up with some big time plays on third down”	4:41
The quarterback’s practice workload	“he’s not taking all the reps and he’s not taking all the throws. How we manage it is kind of a day-to-day thing based off of how he’s feeling”	7:48
How the staff judged the injury last week	“we were optimistic that it wasn’t going to be a long-term thing. It was really like a [week-to-week] thing.”	8:50
Backup quarterback Jalen Milroe	“if he wasn’t able to go, we’re confident in [Jalen]”	15:45

The two practice answers came in reply to questions about the quarterback who played on Sunday; the questions did not name him. Macdonald also said Milroe took practice snaps with the starters last week.

One healthy note

Asked about DeMarcus Lawrence’s game against Arizona, Macdonald said “he played a great game” and that Lawrence dominated his one-on-one matchups (4:09).

Background

• The Seahawks beat Arizona 17-3 on Sunday without Darnold, Williams and Cross, according to the team’s recap of the press conference. The recap describes Darnold and Nelson as week to week and says neither has been placed on injured reserve.
• Darnold injured a quadriceps on the final drive of a 34-17 loss to Chicago on Nov. 2 and also has a cracked rib, ESPN reported.
• Seattle plays the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday and then has its bye in Week 11.

Limits of this page

• The quotations come from YouTube’s automatic captions on the team’s video, lightly cleaned: filler words and stutters are removed. They were not checked by ear. Play the linked moment before reusing a quote.
• Words in square brackets correct a caption error against the team’s written recap.
• Each position links to the start of a caption block, so the quote comes within about 30 seconds of that point.
• Only the injury and quarterback answers are included, and the reporters’ questions are paraphrased.
• Players whose names could not be confirmed against a written source are left out.

Earlier November 4 update

November 5, 2026. This guide connects the Seahawks’ November 4 press conference with their later roster announcement.

Mike Macdonald’s injury briefing explains Seattle’s immediate quarterback plan. A later team announcement answers another question raised in that recording: whether the Seahawks would add help at the position.

Watch: Macdonald’s November 4 press conference on the Seahawks’ official site.

The relevant answers are near the start

Publisher chapter position	Topic
0:20–0:32	Darnold’s quadriceps injury, week-to-week assessment and injured-reserve question.
0:34–1:55	Drew Lock’s starting role and Jalen Milroe as backup.
0:50–1:04	Additional discussion of Darnold’s rib injury.
1:55–2:09	The possibility of adding another quarterback and managing practice repetitions.

The ranges overlap because the questions return to related subjects. They are taken from the team’s published description, not a new word-for-word transcript.

The later update: Adrian Martinez joined the practice squad

At 3:37 p.m. on November 4, the Seahawks published their announcement signing Adrian Martinez and Jamie Sheriff to the practice squad. The report says Darnold was ruled out against Arizona and describes Martinez as depth behind Lock and Milroe.

That changes how readers should understand the earlier discussion. In the press conference, an additional quarterback was a possibility; in the later roster notice, the team had made a practice-squad addition. The announcement did not replace the stated starting plan with Martinez.

Three different questions, three different records

Who is expected to start the next game? Use the coach’s dated availability update and subsequent team reporting.

Who has joined the organization? Use the transaction announcement. A practice-squad signing is not, by itself, an announcement of a starting role.

When will Darnold return? The week-to-week description does not supply an exact return date. It should not be converted into a guaranteed number of missed games.

This distinction keeps the recording useful after the news moves on. The press conference preserves what Macdonald said at that moment; the roster notice supplies the development that followed. Neither needs to be stretched into a medical forecast or a claim about an unannounced game-day decision.