Seahawks have plan to prepare Sam Darnold for NFC Championship game

It isn't ideal to be injured in some form leading up to the biggest game of one’s career, but it happened once for quarterback Sam Darnold, and the Seattle Seahawks think he can shine again. Darnold is entering week two with some form of complications from his oblique, while he and the Seahawks prepare to host the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship game on Sunday.

Darnold had a solid performance in the 41-6 Divisional Round home win over the San Francisco 49ers last Saturday. ESPN Seahawks expert Brady Henderson says in his report that Darnold is improving, as Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald says that Darnold “continues to get better,”but there are still some worries.

Henderson states the Seahawks will continue to limit him to see how he fully feels leading up to the third Seahawks vs. Rams matchup of the season. While he won’t be throwing every passing situation in practice, he will take part in all or, at least, a majority of the drills and 1-on-1s.

Once again, Darnold is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game against the Rams. This comes after the first practice report of the week, where several players, including starting left tackle Charles Cross, are questionable with a foot injury. All three left tackles didn’t participate in Wednesday’s practice, with Cross being out as a precaution.

The NFL has likely done more harm than good since they took away the ‘probable’ status on injury reports, as it caused chaos among media, fans, and even the other teams they are preparing for. Players are either full participants, limited and questionable, didn’t participate and questionable, or didn’t participate and ruled out.

There is no dynamic reasoning for some of these players to be out without having to panic-ask the head coach about their status. While it is a concern that one of the most important players remains injured with an oblique, it should be uplifting to Seahawks fans that Darnold is getting better.

Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold warming up before the Divisional Round win over the San Francisco 49ers. — Jan 17, 2026; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) warms up prior to a game against the San Francisco 49ers in an NFC Divisional Round game at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Ng-Imagn Images | Kevin Ng-Imagn Images

Darnold didn’t have to do much in the Divisional Round win over the 49ers, but what he did was incredibly efficient. Darnold completed 12-of-17 of his passes for 124 yards, a touchdown, a QBR of 63.2, and a quarterback rating of 110.9. He wasn’t asked to do much for the Seahawks because the run game and the defense dominated the 49ers from start to finish.

Still, Darnold made great throws, found solid connections to his pass-catchers, and looked healthy on the field. After the game, Darnold said he felt great, not only in regard to the win, but also in regard to his oblique.

This Sunday, Darnold might be asked to do more as the Rams’ defense was much healthier than the 49ers'. The Rams aren’t as blitz-heavy, so it is going to require Darnold to pay extra attention to the Rams’ dynamic coverage schemes and ensure he doesn’t turn the ball over.

He threw four interceptions in the Seahawks’ 21-19 Week 11 road loss and two in the 38-37 home overtime win in Week 16 against Los Angeles. Since then, Darnold has limited his turnovers and didn’t turn the ball over in the Divisional Round win and the Week 18 win, both over the 49ers.

Like the Seahawks as a whole, Darnold has great momentum and a great mentality going into the NFC Championship. He likely isn’t going to outperform against Rams’ star quarterback Matthew Stafford, but he doesn’t need to. He just needs to take care of himself the rest of the week and take care of the ball by not turning it over and getting it to his reliable pass-catchers, which he has shown he can do at a high level.

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