RENTON
Out of nowhere, the Seahawks have an injury issue with Sam Darnold on the eve of their playoffs starting.
The Pro Bowl quarterback is suddenly questionable to play Saturday in Seattle’s NFC divisional playoff game against San Francisco at Lumen Field. The team listed him following practice Thursday on its official injury report for the game as having a new, oblique injury.
Darnold said he felt a pulling-like discomfort on his left, non-throwing side Thursday while throwing a pass during a no-pads practice outside. He, the team’s coaches and training personnel decided at that moment to shut him down for the rest of the practice, a move Darnold characterized as precautionary.
“Just in routes on air just kind of felt a little something in my oblique,” Darnold said following a practice he didn’t finish.
Offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak said veteran backup Drew Lock finished the practice with the starting offense Thursday, two days before top-seeded Seattle (14-3) hosts its rival San Francisco 49ers (13-5) in the Seahawks’ playoff opener at Lumen Field coming off a postseason bye.
“Just didn’t want to push it, wasn’t the day to push it. That was it,” Darnold said.
“So just came inside, got some rehab — and feel like I’ll be ready to go for Saturday.”
This is the first time Darnold has had any issue to an oblique muscle in his side.
“It’s fun,” he said with a smile. “It’s fun. We’ll attack it in the next couple days and be ready to go for Saturday.”
Quarterback Sam Darnold warms up to begin practice Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton, two days before he and his Seattle Seahawks host the San Francisco 49ers in an NFC divisional playoff game at Lumen Field. Gregg Bell/The News Tribune
The News Tribune asked Darnold what percentage of him thinks he might not play against the 49ers with the Seahawks two home wins from the Super Bowl.
“Very low percentage,” he said. “Probably closer to zero.”
He smiled.
Asked if he was going to be getting “around-the-clock” treatment between now and game time, Darnold said: “Yeah, we’ll be getting some treatment.
“But like I said, I feel really confident about going on Saturday.”
Kubiak, Darnold’s play caller, is keenly interested in his quarterback’s next 48 hours until kickoff against San Francisco. The team will test Darnold’s oblique with his throwing motion in pregame Saturday. The day before games are typically nothing but a walk-through of the game plan in T-shirts and ball caps. He doesn’t have to throw in that to prepare like his teammates on Friday.
“Obviously with any injury, you just want to know what the significance is,” Kubiak said.
The offensive coordinator referred all other questions and comments about Darnold’s injury to his boss, head coach Mike Macdonald. He is scheduled to next talk to the media Friday following the walk-through.
Darnold jogged from the team facility onto the practice field using a Theragun-type device on his throwing side, opposite where the oblique injury occurred early in the practice.
“Nothing to see here,” Darnold said to reporters, cheerfully.
NFL injury reports, explained
In 2016 the NFL did away with “probable” as one of the official designations on injury reports for games, which the league requires teams to submit to NFL headquarters two days before games. Since that change, any player who less than a virtual certainty to play gets listed as “questionable.” That is now the lowest designation before full go to play and a player not being on the injury report at all.
The designations for NFL injury reports are out, doubtful (75% chance he won’t play) and questionable (officially a 50% chance he won’t play). If a previously injured player is not on the injury report for a game, he’s playing.
That’s the case with Seahawks starting left tackle Charles Cross and safety Coby Bryant. They’ve each missed the last three and two games, respectively, to end the regular season. But they are not on the injury report for the game Saturday. So Cross and Bryant are returning to play.
Same with linebacker Ernest Jones and cornerback Riq Woolen. Jones missed practice Tuesday and was limited Wednesday because of an unspecified illness. He was in the training room lifting weights with a mask on when practice was beginning Thursday. Yet Jones is not on the injury report, so he’s playing as usual Saturday.
Woolen was limited in practices Tuesday and Wednesday because of his own oblique issue. But Woolen is not on the injury report. He’s also full go to play.
Rookie tight end Elijah Arroyo was a full participant in practices this week coming off injured reserve. But the team added him to the game injury report later Thursday. He is out for Saturday. So is Chazz Surratt. The special-teams mainstay and former 49er is not coming off injured reserve, either. At least not yet.
#Seahawks update their injury report for the playoff game Saturday vs 49ers:
TE Elijah Arroyo, LB Chazz Surratt are now out. Will not be activated off IR for the game.
Ernest Jones (ill), Riq Woolen (oblique), Charles Cross (knee, hamstring) not on the report. They are playing pic.twitter.com/R1Lit4kmR2
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) January 15, 2026
This story was originally published January 15, 2026 at 2:16 PM.
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Gregg Bell
The News Tribune
Gregg Bell is the Seahawks and NFL writer for The News Tribune. He is a two-time Washington state sportswriter of the year, voted by the National Sports Media Association in January 2023 and January 2019. He started covering the NFL in 2002 as the Oakland Raiders beat writer for The Sacramento Bee. The Ohio native began covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season of 2005. In a prior life he graduated from West Point and served as a tactical intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, so he may ask you to drop and give him 10.
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