Seattle got the best possible news and the most confusing possible news in the same 24 hours.
Sam Darnold’s injury is not his hip. The hip joint is fine. What the 29-year-old quarterback actually has is a glute injury, a soft tissue problem that head coach Mike Macdonald called “very unique.”
That is the good news. Now the confusing part.
Mike Florio of NBC reported a four-to-six week timeline. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported that a Week 3 return against Washington is potentially in play. Those two reports cannot both be right, and neither one is being walked back.
What is settled: Darnold will not play Sunday at Arizona, and Seattle has not placed him on injured reserve. That second detail is the tell. IR would cost him a minimum of four games. Keeping him off it says the Seahawks believe in the shorter version of the timeline.
How it happened
Darnold left the season opener against New England within the first handful of snaps after taking a sack at an awkward angle in the first quarter. Reports differ on whether it was five snaps or six plays, which tells you how fast it happened.
Seattle won anyway, 13-10, behind Drew Lock, who came in and went 16-of-22 for 187 yards and a touchdown.
Lock will start in Arizona.
Why this is more dangerous than it looks
The Seahawks are 1-0 and the backup played well. It would be easy to shrug.
Do not shrug. Week 2 is a road game against a division rival, and the NFC West does not hand out free wins. Arizona at home in September is a real test for a quarterback making his first start of the year.
Soft tissue injuries in the glute and hamstring family also have a nasty habit of lingering, especially for a quarterback who needs to plant and drive off that leg to throw. The “very unique” description from Macdonald is not reassuring language. It usually means the medical staff has not seen this exact presentation often enough to give a confident date.
Seattle’s decision to keep Darnold off IR gives them flexibility, but it also means they will be answering this question every single Wednesday until he plays.
The bigger picture
Darnold has spent his career being the answer to a question nobody wanted to ask. He finally landed somewhere that fit, and now he is watching his backup start a division game in September.
Lock has been here before. He has started NFL games, he has won NFL games, and he was efficient in relief. If he can go 1-1 over the next two weeks while Darnold heals, Seattle comes out of this fine.
If the Florio timeline is the accurate one, Lock is the starter into October and the Seahawks’ season looks very different.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.