Mike Macdonald is in a situation that no head coach wants to be in.
His starting quarterback is currently out of commission with an injury. Sam Darnold went down early in Week 1 with a glute injury, but there have been mostly positive developments since then.
First, Darnold didn’t break anything, so it shouldn’t be long-term. Second, the team won the Week 1 game despite Darnold being out.
We know Darnold won’t play in Week 2, but he could end up coming back soon. On Wednesday, Macdonald offered another positive update about his quarterback.
Macdonald Says Darnold ‘Killing It’ With Rehab
Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
On Wednesday, Macdonald was asked if Darnold is sitting at home recovering, or if he’s been able to start rehab. Luckily, the coach affirmed the latter.
“He’s killing it on his rehab,” Macdonald said. “He’s doing a lot.”
Darnold was even briefly seen at practice on Wednesday and appeared to be walking normally, for whatever that’s worth. The quarterback was even seen practicing some dropbacks before heading inside for rehab work.
There were some scary reports earlier this week that Darnold could potentially miss around six weeks, but the team doesn’t anticipate that. According to reports, Macdonald and the team are bracing for a four-week absence from the time of his injury (which was last Wednesday).
“Don’t anticipate putting him on IR or anything like that, but we’ll just kind of re-evaluate every day and re-evaluate next week and we’ll go from there,” Macdonald said Wednesday. “But he won’t play this week.”
If the four-week recovery holds true, Darnold would miss this game and the next two after. That’s still far from a worst-case scenario, but it’s still not ideal to miss your starting quarterback for any time at all when you’re trying to win a Super Bowl again.
The Seahawks play the Cardinals this week, and then head across the country to play the Commanders in Week 3. The team is back home in Week 4 to play the Chargers and then play the 49ers at home in Week 5. That Week 5 game could be the spot to welcome Darnold back, as it’s a divisional game with huge implications.
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