Sam Darnold injures hip on first series as Seahawks open Super Bowl defense against Patriots

Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold left Wednesday night's NFL season opener against the New England Patriots after just two offensive series with a hip injury, an abrupt and unwelcome start to Seattle's title defense in a rematch of last February's Super Bowl LX. As of this writing, with the Patriots leading 7-0 in the second quarter, Darnold's return remained officially "questionable," and backup Drew Lock had taken over at quarterback.

The injury occurred on Seattle's opening drive at Lumen Field, when Patriots defensive lineman Dre'Mont Jones sacked Darnold on third down. Darnold, visibly limping, was helped to the sideline medical tent before leaving for X-rays. He finished the night 1 of 2 passing for 13 yards before exiting, having played roughly five or six offensive snaps. Lock, a 29-year-old journeyman who signed a two-year, $5 million deal with Seattle in 2025 as Darnold's backup and attempted only three passes all of last regular season, came on for Seattle's second possession.

A rematch six months removed from a blowout

The game marked just the third time in NFL history that a Super Bowl rematch has opened the following season's Week 1 schedule, and the first Wednesday-night season opener since 2012, when the league moved the game to accommodate a Democratic National Convention speech that year. This year's Wednesday slot instead cleared room for the NFL's first-ever regular-season game in Australia, a 49ers-Rams matchup at Melbourne Cricket Ground set for Friday. Seattle marked the occasion with a pregame ceremony unveiling its Super Bowl LX championship banner, with former safety Kam Chancellor taking part.

Seattle beat New England 29-13 in Super Bowl LX in February, a game in which the Seahawks' defense sacked Patriots quarterback Drake Maye six times. New England's offseason focus was rebuilding around that failure: the team added pass-rusher Dre'Mont Jones on a three-year, $39.5 million deal from Baltimore, signed offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker, and reunited receiver A.J. Brown with head coach Mike Vrabel, who coached Brown in college at Tennessee, according to the league's own preview of the matchup. Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels had acknowledged before the game that Seattle "out-everythinged" New England in the Super Bowl, framing Wednesday's rematch as a measuring stick for how far the Patriots had come.

The game so far

With Lock at quarterback, Seattle's offense stalled through four consecutive punts, including one drive kept alive by a 20-yard completion to receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, last season's NFL Offensive Player of the Year, on third-and-21. New England capitalized midway through the second quarter, when Maye connected with rookie tight end Eli Raridon for a 2-yard touchdown — Raridon's first career catch and first career touchdown — capping a 10-play, 77-yard drive aided by a flea-flicker completion to Brown and a defensive pass-interference penalty on Seattle cornerback Josh Jobe. Seattle entered the night already thin at safety, with Nick Emmanwori recovering from ankle surgery and two other defensive backs, Ty Okada and rookie Bud Clark, sidelined by injury.

Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez, who signed a four-year, $135 million extension this offseason making him the NFL's highest-paid corner, has drawn one of the night's most closely watched individual matchups, lining up regularly against Smith-Njigba.

"Sam Darnold is questionable to return," the Seahawks said in an official in-game injury designation, offering no further detail on the extent of the hip injury as he underwent X-rays on the sideline.

The Wednesday scheduling itself had been a subject of pregame discussion beyond Seattle. The NFL has opened its season on a Thursday in every year since 2012, and league officials confirmed moving this year's opener up a day was necessary to clear Thursday night's broadcast window for the Australia game, which kicks off Friday local time at the Melbourne Cricket Ground between the 49ers and Rams. Coverage began at 7 p.m. ET with NBC's "Football Night in America" before the 8:20 p.m. kickoff.

What Darnold's absence would mean

Darnold's ascent to Seattle's Super Bowl-winning quarterback capped an unlikely career turn. The former No. 3 overall draft pick by the Jets in 2018 was widely regarded as a bust through stints in New York, Carolina and San Francisco before a resurgent 2024 season with Minnesota led Seattle to sign him in free agency last year; the Super Bowl LX title was his first championship and second career Pro Bowl selection. His three-year contract, worth up to $100.5 million, carries no guaranteed money beyond this season, a detail that would take on added significance for his next negotiation with the team if a hip injury were to cost him extended playing time. Rookie third-round pick Jalen Milroe is the emergency third quarterback on Seattle's roster but is not expected to play barring a second injury to Lock.

Seattle's practice and injury reports over the coming days, along with any X-ray or MRI findings the team discloses, will determine whether Darnold's absence is a short-term precaution or a longer-term concern for a team trying to defend its first Super Bowl title since the 2013 season. Hip injuries of the kind Darnold appeared to suffer on the sack can range from a several-day bruise to a multi-week soft-tissue or joint problem depending on what imaging shows, and the team's Wednesday-to-Sunday practice-participation reports over the next several days, standard under NFL injury-reporting rules, will be the first concrete signal of how the Seahawks expect to handle their quarterback situation heading into Week 2. Through six offensive snaps and one series, Seattle's title defense has already been complicated in a way no amount of offseason roster building could have prevented.