Sam Darnold gives as much as he gets trash talkin', Seahawks defense challenges the new QB

Yahoo

2 days ago

So what it's only spring.
When the Seahawks began their offseason practices in late May, ringleader Devin Witherspoon and his teammates on defense made sure to talk smack across the line to their new quarterback.
A LOT of smack. From snap one of day one.
'The first OTA (organized team activity) the defense just picked up where we left off in terms of, just...chatter,' Pro Bowl safety Julian Love said Tuesday.
Chatter?
'Just, guys are just talking s*** every play,' Love said.
The intent was clear: The defense led by Witherspoon, the Pro Bowl cornerback who talks as good a game as he plays, wanted to tell new starting quarterback Sam Darnold in from Minnesota on a $100.5 million contract right away where the strength of Seattle's team is. And it's not on Darnold's offense.
But Darnold wasn't having any of that.
The 27-year-old quarterback from San Clemente, California, and USC with sandy blonde hair in waves and a 10 handicap in golf (who says his recent best round shooting a 78 on his course back home wasn't all that good) woofed back.
'What you love about Sam is he's just a dude, man,' Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said Tuesday after the first practice of mandatory minicamp. 'He's, like, one of the guys. There's a sense of he's one of the guys. So he's right there with them.
'But there's some there's some s*** to him. Like, don't mess with him.
'You know, he's he's got that edge to him, that competitiveness. And the guys respect that.'
Darnold's competitiveness is not a surprise to the Seahawks. Macdonald and general manager John Schneider knew it in March.
That's when the Seahawks quickly pivoted in March away from two-time Pro Bowl passer Geno Smith wanting more money to remain Seattle's QB beyond 2025. They traded Smith, to Las Vegas, and within days signed Darnold.
He is coming off a 14-3 season for the Vikings throwing for 4,300 yards. One of those wins was over the Seahawks at Lumen Field.
Darnold completed 22 of 35 passes that December night in Seattle, for 246 yards and three touchdowns with zero turnovers. The Vikings beat the Seahawks 27-24 in the third-to-last game of their season. Seattle missed the playoffs by one win.
'We went against him,' Maconald said of Darnold's competitiveness. 'We felt it.'
What does Darnold's trash talk sound like on the field?
'Like, dad jokes,' Love said.
The safety, himself a father of a toddler, smiled.
'It's, like, those type of kind of jabs,' Love said. 'But you can tell: 'OK, he has some fire, to him.' He's used to being one of the guys, one of the boys.
'He's not a square type of guy. He's just...he's cool. He's cool with dishing back a bit.'
That doesn't mean his teammates think the dishes, the food, Darnold likes is all that refined.
Darnold said he is excited to try the many good restaurants around his new Seattle area.
New Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp, the Super Bowl MVP and NFL offensive player of the year in 2021 with the Los Angeles Rams described Darnold asking him out to dinner recently.
'He kind of has a childish taste. Like, palate,' Kupp said.
It's not a $100 million one.
'He said he wanted to go to dinner. I was like, 'Perfect. What sounds good?' Kupp said. 'Just the recommendations, the way he came off was, like, 'You want to go get some fries and chicken strips?'
'And I was like, 'Look, I I have a six year old. I can bring you his food. I can bring that — and I'll go eat something good.'
Kupp said of Darnold: 'I don't, I don't trust him yet with the food recommendations, things like that.
'Again, quarterbacks, I would have expected a little bit differently. But, you know, everyone has their own thing.'
On the field, Darnold was shaking his head and kicking at the grass at one point last week during OTAs. That was after he threw four interceptions in the first two offseason practices open to the media last week. Love and cornerback Josh Jobe picked off Darnold twice in three red-zone plays one day.
Darnold has also gotten the defense with sharp, quick throws, particularly to Kupp. Another one came in minicamp Tuesday. During 11-on-11 scrimmaging, a route so exquisite off the line by Kupp had the Yakima native and former Eastern Washington star 5 yards wide of cornerback Riq Woolen's coverage. Woolen didn't realize the ball was arriving from Darnold for the completion and first down.
But the defense has generally won more than its lost against Darnold and the starting offense. The starting offense again didn't score a touchdown in 11-on-11 scrimmaging Tuesday. Darnold often held the ball a long time because the defensive secondary was tightly covering Kupp, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and the receivers.
They are reminders the Seahawks defense that rebounded so well late last season remains not only a strength of the team but is 'on a mission' for 2025, as Macdonald put it Tuesday.
In red-zone scrimmaging to begin minicamp, Darnold tried to loft a throw to the back left corner of the end zone to 6-foot-4 wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling over Woolen. But Woolen broke it with a jump. The next play the pass rush and coverage — including 220-pound rookie safety Nick Emmanwori in his view — forced Darnold to lawn dart a throw inside well short of the goal line.
That series ended in a field goal by Jason Myers instead of a touchdown. Another win for the defense.
'They're flying around. It's super fun to compete against,' Darnold said. 'I think all of the variations of coverages, too, the way that the guys in the back end disguise coverages, and even the nickels. You've got 'Spoon' disguising certain leverages, so I don't know whether he's going to be a hook defender or if he's going to be in the flat.
'I think those guys on the back end are doing a really good job. I know they're going to continue to do that and push us as we're going to continue to push them.'
That's the thing the Seahawks defenders are noticing, through the smack talk at Darnold. Their new quarterback is pushing them, too.
'Sam kind of has some of that little swag to him,' Love said. 'And he has ability. And so he's making us better.'
Yet even away from the field, well after the smack talk has subsided, Witherspoon doesn't exactly shower his quarterback with praise.
'He's got his strengths. He's got his weaknesses. Like every quarterback,' Witherspoon said.
'Now (that) he's on our team he's going to go out there and make a lot of plays for us. So, we put a lot of trust in him and I believe he's going to deliver.'