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The Seattle Seahawks have a major turnover issue. Despite sitting at 7-3 and second place in the NFC West, the Seahawks have turned the ball over a league-high 20 times.
They also have the fourth-worst turnover differential in the league at negative-7, which is, in large part, due to the 20 turnovers. First-year quarterback Sam Darnold, who joined in free agency, knows it’s a problem.
But his recent comments about the issue show a severe lack of self-awareness.
“It’s unacceptable,” Darnold said of the matter Thursday. “We understand as an offense, we have to be better, I have to be better, protecting the football. We’re doing everything that we can in practice, and when the game comes, to try to take care of the football a little bit better.”
Seattle Seahawks QB Sam Darnold Is Turning The Ball Over A Ton
There’s just one problem. The “we” in this situation is largely just Darnold. He sits third in the NFL with 10 interceptions, and he’s fumbled the ball five times, losing four of them. So Darnold is personally responsible for 14 of the 20 turnovers on the season!
Now, a quarterback is always likely to lead the team in turnovers, because nobody else can throw interceptions. But that’s still a very, very large percentage.
Darnold’s comments came after throwing four interceptions in a loss to NFC West rival Los Angeles. Although he did show a little more awareness when discussing how to fix the issue.
“Just having a better understanding when the ball’s snapped [of] what the coverage is and when a guy is going to come open and when he’s not,” Darnold said. “When I say ‘get stuck on a progression,’ I mean just seeing one side of the field and feeling like there’s a chance that someone’s going to get open over there rather than just moving on and clicking through my progression as I normally do.”
Darnold has developed into, at worst, an adequate NFL starting QB, and at best, a pretty good one. But he still struggles under pressure and often panics, leading to turnovers.
If he can ever get that cleaned up consistently, he could well become one of he league’s top signal callers.