Sam Darnold - Quarterback, seahawks Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-06 | Full transcript (primary source).
Sam Darnold, Quarterback for the Seahawks, addressed the media during a press conference on September 6, 2026, ahead of their season opener against the New England Patriots. Darnold discussed the team's preparations and the challenges they anticipate facing as they kick off the new NFL season.
Transcript
Darnold: It's good to see all you guys, man. It's been a while. No, it's a great opportunity for us. Obviously, this is a really good football team coming in here in New England. Really good defense, offense, good special teams, obviously, and really good coaching staff. So we got our work cut out for us, but it's exciting, man. Exciting to have football back and just ready to go.
Reporter: What's different about each one in terms of the improvising that's needed and not knowing what to expect?
Darnold: Yeah, that presents its own challenges, for sure. Being able to see it's a similar defense, obviously, that we played our last game. But they could have some different wrinkles. So we just got to be prepared on everything or for everything. And then I think a big thing as well this game is going to be communication on the sideline, how we adjust to certain things that we see out there.
Reporter: You told us in Nashville that you feel like offensively you guys still trying to figure out your identity. Is that something that you don't really know until the games begin? You don't really know what you do best.
Darnold: Yeah, I think you kind of have an idea of what you like to run and certain situations and down in distances, all those things. But yeah, you definitely get a better feel for it when you get out there in the game.
Reporter: We've asked you about Brian Fleury kind of throughout, since he got here. But now that you're all the way to week one, you've been working with him through a whole camp. How do you feel like the offense is coming together with any coordinator?
Darnold: Yeah, Fleury, I think just the communication that he's had with not only myself, but our entire group coming up here in front of the group and explaining how we want to form our identity and that it's never going to be set in stone. We're always evolving. But we have our things that are non-negotiables, how we play in the standard. That is our offensive line, tight ends, running backs, receivers. We all have a standard of how we want to play, and we need to uphold that no matter what our scheme is. And I think Brian's made himself very clear about that. And that rings true with what a lot of our philosophies are as players.
Reporter: You talked about in Nashville that you've been talking about how to spend some time with Fleury and kind of build that relationship. Have you had a chance to do that? Is that something you initiate? Is that something he initiates? How does that work?
Darnold: Yeah, it goes both ways. For me, just talking about some of the things that I liked from last year or even years prior. So really myself initiating the conversation of what we like to do as an offense. Because he's been in San Francisco for so many years, which is great. The last couple of years, when I wasn't there, they've done a ton of great things, which I've harped on to you guys, of how they do things in the run game and then some of the pass game things that they do. But just getting with him on some of the things that we like as a group to do in the pass game and in the run game. So it's a collaboration for sure. And at the end of the day, he has the final say on what goes in and what doesn't.
Reporter: You've described Brian as even keel in the past. I'm curious how you've seen that kind of showed up over the last few months, especially as the ramp up towards his first game as offensive coordinator comes up.
Darnold: Yeah, it's interesting, right? As you play these preseason games, the schedule on a week-to-week basis, it changes a lot. And you're trying to get guys ready to play who just got here two days ago. And so just the amount of prep that we've gone through, like going through a normal week, getting ready for this game against New England, it's more, you can tell, it's like more of not only his comfort zone, but all of us as players, it's our comfort zone to be able to get our routine right and get the feel of a normal week back. I think sometimes the preseason games can cause a little stress and anxiety, especially for coaches, as they try to get a plan together for some of those guys. So for him, just feeling like every day we've come in so far this week, he's been great, just in terms of the way that he's presenting, how clear the plan is so far. So yeah, it's been great.
Reporter: We've seen Brian call plays from up in the box and on the sideline in these preseason games. Do you have a preference as a quarterback, whether you like to have the play caller on the sideline with you or upstairs? And would that be something that he would maybe potentially ask you about to try to make that decision?
Darnold: Yeah, it's interesting. I feel like all coordinators have a different preference. It's whatever he likes. I don't have a preference personally. If he sees it better upstairs, go upstairs, and then vice versa, right? If he sees it better on the sideline, then it's great having him down there as well.
Reporter: Leonard was saying yesterday, he didn't feel like you've changed at all from, say, this time last year, despite what you've kind of accomplished in the last year. And he said that's a really good thing, that your approach to everything is the same. Is that kind of how you do it?
Darnold: Yeah, I hope I'd not change. If I change, you guys, please tell me. No, but that's not only for myself, but that's a lot of the guys in the locker room. I feel like we have a short-term memory in terms of what we've done in the past. It's about what we can do today to get ourselves ready for this game.
Reporter: Even if you haven't changed, do you feel maybe better, more comfortable going into the season that you're in the same place for two years, a lot of the same teammates, a lot of continuity in the scheme. There's a lot of carryover versus you've been bouncing around a lot.
Darnold: Yeah, I think as humans, naturally, we seek comfort a little bit. And I think for myself, that was a big challenge this offseason was, OK, it's the first time in a few years that I've stayed in one place. How can I kind of push myself a little bit more and challenge myself? Obviously, Flurry coming in here with a couple different wrinkles, really being able to study those things and go back to the basics, like studying formations, concepts, motions, all those things to continue to sharpen my sword. And so I think that's the biggest thing as a player and as a human in general. You try to seek comfort sometimes, and I think it's being able to find ways to continue to challenge yourself, which allows you to continue to grow.
Reporter: You're a golfer, as well as a football player, and the sequencing and a golf swing. I'm curious, you can get out of sequence there, you find it on the range. When you have sequencing with your throwing motion, do you find that that gets out of sync as well, and do you have things to go back to to find it?
Darnold: Yeah, that's a great question. I think one thing that is a little bit different, and it's funny, I was actually just talking to someone this morning about it, is golfers. Especially, it's like a set thing, kickers also with JMI. It's a set routine, and you have your own swing. Sometimes as a football player, as a quarterback, that sequencing might need to shorten up based on how much time we have in the pocket. Or if I have to move and my feet are facing this way and I have to make a throw this way, sometimes you got to rely on arm strength or your agility to make a play and make a throw. So that would be the one difference, but sometimes just throwing it out there on the practice field, I want to make sure I'm sequenced up as much as I can be, and make sure that everything's flowing. And that's the other thing, too, for doing it as long as I have been. If I'm not sequenced up the right way, and my hips and my shoulders and torso aren't aligned in the right way, then I'll feel it. Whether it's in my hips, my shoulder. So I know right away if I'm not sequenced up, and there's definitely ways that I can fix that as I go on throughout the day, and even the next couple days.
Reporter: Did you know that you had a high spin rate before Hard Knocks made a big deal about it?
Darnold: Just talking to someone about that as well. I mean, it's a high spin rate, but it's more of the efficiency of it. I think I've always spun it. It's funny, people talk about spin. All that dude spins it. When he lets it go, and you can tell he just has a natural throwing motion. I've always been able to do that since high school and middle school. And there's just a lot of things that you try to tweak along the way throughout your quarterback journey to continue to make yourself more efficient. I would say one thing too is in college, I really relied on it. I relied on my arm to make a ton of throws. And I had a coach in college who said, hey, one day you're not gonna be able to do that. You're gonna play a long time, and you're not always gonna just be able to rely on your arm to make throws. And so I think just hearing that and getting my body into as many throws as possible helps with that mindset.
Reporter: Sam, the mental coach you turned to a couple years ago, why was it at that point in your career you did that who got you the who or what went through that way?
Darnold: Yeah, well, I had been kind of thinking about it. And I had been trying, to be honest, I had tried some different sports psychologists and it just didn't really click. With him, it just clicked. He just explained kind of the science of why our brain goes to a certain place or a lot of it is to just protect ourselves, like the fight or flight stuff. So I think for me, it was like understanding the science of why my brain is going to a certain place. And that allowed me to kind of just, I guess, use some hacks to be able to trick myself into thinking that everything's fine.
Reporter: Is that a daily maintenance thing or is that some second nature treatment?
Darnold: No, I've had to work on it, still working on it every day. And I'll get frustrated on the field sometimes, especially in practice, when we're still trying to tweak things and figure it out. And I'm always trying to get better mentally.
Reporter: The Super Bowl, when you look back at that game, what comes to mind?
Darnold: Oh, man. I mean, I think for me, like it showed me it showed me what I needed to work on, I would say. Like, I feel like I didn't make as many throws as I should have.
Reporter: Sam, when you go from training camp, reinstall types of practices to in-season game planning, what functionally changes for you? Does the goals you're trying to get out of a practice alter a little bit? Like, how does that kind of shift if it does at all?
Darnold: I think it remains kind of, it remains the same for the most part. I think when you're trying to get certain looks from the defense and understand what those looks are, sometimes it can feel curated. I think as a quarterback, I want to try to not know what's coming from the defense. Like I will in the game, based on certain looks I might know, but I think with New England and a lot of the scheme that they do, it can be tough to tell. So, just, I guess, urging the scout guys, and they do a great job as well, because our defense does it, but just urging them to really not show us exactly what they're going to be in pre-snap.
Reporter: Did your Super Bowl ring survive being dropped?
Darnold: It did, yeah. It's pretty durable.
Reporter: What did you think of your portrayal overall on Hard Knocks?
Darnold: Yeah, I don't know. I didn't watch it if I'm being honest, but my parents loved it. So, I'm sure it was great.
Reporter: Going back to the ring ceremony, did you think that like, oh my God, what was going through your mind when that happened? Like, of course, of course this would happen to me, dropping the ring, but I will say in my defense, I guess this would be a good time to do it. I opened the box and the ring was already kind of falling out. It wasn't like I made the ring fall out of the box. I just wanted to clear that up. I had to say that because people had been asking me the same exact question. Like, how did the ring, how did you drop the ring? It's so precious. And I was like, I just opened the box and it fell out and I couldn't grab it.
Reporter: Sam, what does running forward mean to you as you guys try to move on from the Super Bowl like you said?
Darnold: Yeah, I would say, simply put, I would say it's stacking days and just continuing like today is a great, for us, we're thinking about it like a Thursday. I know it's Sunday, but just thinking about it like a Thursday, what do I need to attack today to get better on third downs and some of the looks that our defense is going to give us and own our stuff as well, being able to own our plays and our operation. So I would say that's it though. It's just taking it one day at a time.
Darnold: Thanks, Sam.
Darnold: Thank you.
Darnold: Thanks, guys.