Halfway through Seahawks preseason, how’s Sam Darnold? And: A Kenneth Walker plan
Mike Macdonald was again trying to do what the defensive wizard had been doing consistently a couple weeks ago.
Seattle’s head coach was disguising pressures and coverages to confuse Sam Darnold. He was trying to make the Seahawks’ new quarterback hesitant and inaccurate throwing the ball again.
But this isn’t July anymore.
“It’s a pain in the butt to pressure you,” Macdonald told Darnold during scrimmaging at practice Sunday, “because the ball’s out and you’re making (quick throws).
“’It’s hard to get to you.’”
That’s by Darnold’s and new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s designs.
The Seahawks are past halfway through their preseason. Monday was the 16th practice of training camp. Seattle has 28 practices scheduled from the start of camp until game week arrives for the opener, Sept. 7 against San Francisco at Lumen Field.
Darnold is far more than halfway to being where the Seahawks need him to be for Week 1.
There has been so much attention on Kubiak installing a new, physical running game. The takeaway from Seattle’s first preseason game last week was the show rookie first-round pick Grey Zabel at left guard and the remade offensive line put on while the Seahawks rushed for 170 yards against the Raiders.
Yet this is a quarterback-driven league.
Seattle’s new one has taken a jump from the start of camp to now.
Darnold is better in his throwing and his decision-making. Both are quicker, more decisive and more accurate than they were 16 practices ago.
He and Kubiak’s all-new offense can thank Macdonald for that.
Darnold has gotten accustomed to Macdonald’s tricks along the defensive front. The quarterback is now anticipating rookie safety Nick Emmanwori really being an outside linebacker off the edge, about to blitz him. Darnold is figuring out Macdonald’s shifting of defensive backs, from what looks like man-to-man coverage at the snap to what is in fact zone, and vice versa.
“We’re kind of getting to the stuff with sauce later in camp (here). So we’re kind of giving him the full game,” Macdonald said.
“We’re running more stuff in practice than we’d ever carry in a game.”
Darnold is acing it. After a spate of interceptions early in camp, he hasn’t thrown one in practice since Monday, Aug. 4, an overthrow that landed into the arms of safety D’Anthony Bell.
He’s looking more like the quarterback who went 14-3 with 4,300 yards passing and 35 touchdowns in a breakout 2024 season with Minnesota.
He’s looking more like the QB the Seahawks traded Geno Smith to get. The team then gave Darnold, 28, a three-year contract that could be worth up to $100.5 million.
“I thought we’ve had a really good few weeks,” Darnold said in the middle of this, his eight NFL training camp. “Just awesome to see where the team has come from the beginning of training camp.”
Asked how the offense and team have grown the most in three weeks, Darnold said: “As a whole, just execution.
“I think the defense is doing a great job of communicating certain motions. For us as an offense just the sheer ability to, when the defense does move around and they do bring different pressures, the stuff Mike loves to bring, we’re executing at a high level. And we’re communicating through it.
“We’re still making mistakes every now and then, but it’s not as much as in the beginning of OTAs (organized team activities in May and June) or the beginning of camp.”
Cooper Kupp, Jaxon Smith-Njigba approve
The Seahawks’ new top receivers love how quickly, decisively and accurately Darnold is throwing the ball recently.
Cooper Kupp became the NFL’s offensive player of the year and Super Bowl MVP at the end of the 2021 season running quick routes Matthew Stafford hit on so exquisitely and accurately for the Rams that year. Kupp’s 1,947 yards receiving that season were the second-most in NFL history. Forty-three percent of those yards (846) came after the catch on quicker, shorter passes then runs.
Kupp signed with Seattle this offseason. He’s been the inside, slot receiver with Smith-Njigba and rookie camp star Tory Horton outside when Kubiak’s gone to three wide receivers in camp.
Smith-Njigba, who tied Tyler Lockett’s Seahawks record with 100 catches last season from Smith, says the quicker Darnold throws, the better.
“I’d rather the ball be halfway there while I break,” Smith-Njigba said. “So, yeah, he’s doing a great job with that. And I think it really knives the defense and just gets him off balance.
“That’s, that’s a win for us, for sure.”
Even the defense is noticing
The Seahawks defensive players who were getting to Darnold and forcing mistakes earlier in camp are noticing the difference.
“Honestly, I’ve watched him grow from OTAs to now,” 10th-year defensive tackle Jarran Reed said Monday. “I think he’s gotten way more comfortable in the offense.
“And I can see why he was one of the top quarterbacks in the league right now.”
Teammates such as right tackle Abe Lucas have described Darnold as even-keeled. Yet Macdonald and others say the quarterback has an edge, “some s***” in him.
Reed sees a playful side to Darnold, too.
“You know, he laughs and jokes with us, as well. He always talks about how big I am, I guess. And then we make jokes with him. He’s a cool guy.
“Man,” Reed said of Seattle’s new franchise quarterback and his progress, “I’m really excited to see him play.”
Light work
Monday was the second of what Macdonald calls “ACT” practices of camp. ACT is the coach’s acronym for “accountability, communication and technique.” Players work in T-shirts and caps or bucket hats on ACT days.
The first ACT day this camp was on the seventh day of camp.
Macdonald said this one was to give the players a break with eight days between the first preseason game and the second one, Friday night against Kansas City at Lumen Field.
The Seahawks will be in full pads practicing in front of fans Tuesday.
Kenneth Walker plan
Kenneth Walker began training camp full go for pretty much the first week. It was noticeable.
Lately, the lead running back entering the final year of his contract has been getting about every other day off. He had a sore foot the first days of this month, then returned to full-go practicing last week. He’s been alternating days off since.
All per schedule, apparently.
Macdonald said Walker is fine for the opener.
“We have a program. We have a plan for Ken,” Macdonald said. “And we’re sticking to the plan.”
No Olu Oluwatimi
Though it was an ultra-light, walk-through practice, center Olu Oluwatimi missed it again. He’s missed four of the last five. The one day of those he practiced, he left after position drills with a tight back.
Macdonald said Oluwatimi did not have a setback “that I know of.” The coach didn’t know if Oluwatimi will play Friday against the Chiefs.
Starting O-line
Jalen Sundell was again the first-team center Monday, as he was to start the preseason opener.
Macdonald said the coaches have a good idea of where the five starting offensive linemen will settle, and they will announce that soon. Perhaps it will be next week, as the team heads to Green Bay for a joint practice there Aug. 21 then exhibition finale against the Packers Aug. 23. Four spots appear set: Charles Cross at left tackle, rookie first-round pick Grey Zabel at left guard, Anthony Bradford at right guard and Lucas at right tackle.
Still no Johnathan Hankins
Nose tackle Johnathan Hankins hasn’t practiced at all this training camp. He has his own back issue.
Macdonald said he doesn’t know when the 33-year-old veteran will be back on the field. He hasn’t been out watching practices. He is in camp and in meetings each day.
The head coach was asked if he expects Hankins to be ready for the opener.
“I wouldn’t say I was or wasn’t expecting him,” Macdonald said. “With what he’s dealing with, his back, you can’t have — you can’t have a timetable, because you’re either going to be wrong or going to be disappointed. And if he’s back earlier than maybe the prognosis is, great. ...
“So it’s really just a matter of how quickly the back kind of calms down.”
Bohanna, Pili rise
Macdonald wants to use 2024 first-round pick Byron Murphy more off the center between both offensive guards this season. So younger nose tackles Quinton Bohanna and Brandon Pili are taking advantage of Hankins being out.
Bohanna, 25, started at nose tackle last week against the Raiders. Pili, 26, entered for him and had two tackles.
“Those are two guys that went into the offseason with something to prove, and both guys have really taken ownership of the trajectory of their career by taking care of their bodies,” Macdonald said. “Taking a ton of reps, doing a great job. Great attitude, positive. Just really attacked the whole offseason program.
“And you can tell the position that they put (themselves) in going into camp. Then they’ve really backed it up with some with some great practices. And I thought they played well in the game.
“So, excited about both those guys.”
This story was originally published August 11, 2025 at 2:46 PM.
