This turnover statistic from this Seahawks-49ers game may surprise you

When the topic of turnovers comes up in the NFL right now, the Seattle Seahawks tend to be the first team to be brought up. There’s a very good reason why that’s the case. The Seahawks have 28 of them so far this season, just one behind Minnesota for the league lead. Minnesota has been eliminated from the postseason for a while, so of course Seattle is getting focus here.

And within that conversation, Sam Darnold is being particularly emphasized, again with good reason. Darnold leads the league in turnovers for a quarterback with 20, two ahead of Geno Smith, making him responsible for a significant majority of those turnovers. It’s probably the biggest problem with one of the best teams in the league. They give it away a lot.

As we head into this weekend, with a massive showdown looming against the San Francisco 49ers for the top seed in the NFC, we should not forget to investigate the issue on the other side as well. The 49ers have 21 turnovers on the season, tenth most, a number of some concern, but seemingly more manageable. However, there’s one interesting number baked in here.

Brock Purdy, who is on a phenomenal hot streak over his last three starts, has his own turnover problems in 2025. They’re not as prominent, but that’s mostly because Purdy has missed half the season with injuries. In fact, by some numbers, Purdy has had a bigger issue with turnovers than Darnold.

Brock has thrown nine interceptions and lost two fumbles in eight starts thus far in 2025. If you want to just take the raw turnover numbers per game, that means Purdy averages 1.375 turnovers a game, compared to 1.25 for Darnold. The person responsible for cleaning this number up a bit in San Fran is Mac Jones, who has eight turnovers in eight starts in 2025.

It might be tempting to pin this on Purdy’s extra dropbacks per game, and there is something to that. Purdy averages one turnover every 24.1 pass attempt or sack taken, whereas Darnold is at 23.8. Virtually identical. Hardly enough of a difference to justify the volume of one conversation versus the other.

Nor is this a matter of the cost of doing business. Seattle is second in the league in points scored at 470, San Francisco is eighth with 434. If you remove all non-offensive touchdowns (seven for Seattle, one for San Fran), the 49ers do hold a tiny lead (427 to 420), but there’s no indication San Francisco is getting more juice from the squeeze of high turnovers.

This is a bigger problem for San Francisco than most know. — San Francisco 49ers tight end Luke Farrell (center right) fumbles the ball against Jacksonville Jaguars safety Andrew Wingard (center). | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

The bottom line is, if Sam Darnold has a turnover problem, then Brock Purdy does as well. His interception percentage this season is 3.5%, by far a career high, third in the NFL, and noticeably higher than Darnold’s 3.1%. Even if you’re kind enough to only count games since Week 12, Purdy’s still at 3.1%.

And this Seattle defense, which is tied for fifth in the league in turnovers forced at 24, needs to look at this as an opportunity to flip the script. The 49ers are going to score some points. Based on their last few games, probably quite a few. So a well-timed turnover or two can make all the difference, since Seattle’s offense should be primed to put up some points of their own.

Given that both the Seahawks and 49ers are scoring plenty of points despite their turnover problems, there’s a different lesson baked into these numbers as well, which is that turnovers are often not as big of a deal as many assume. But for Seattle, this week, it provides an opportunity to turn the tables and switch up the narrative going into the postseason.

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