Seahawks, Sam Darnold have plan on cutting down on interceptions

by · The Seattle Times

RENTON — Almost the minute the Seahawks’ turnover-laden 32-29 loss to the San Francisco 49ers concluded Sunday, quarterback Sam Darnold came up with an idea for how to address his recent predilection for throwing interceptions.

That plan, which Darnold relayed to offensive coordinator Brian Fleury?

Sticking even more on gameday with tried, true and well-practiced plays that the team has a history of success using.

“It’s something that he identified right away coming off the field that we were able to talk about over the last 48 hours, and it’s relying more heavily on plays that we have a lot of experience with both through training camp, through the first couple weeks, that he’s comfortable making swift decisions and progressing through,” Fleury said Tuesday. “So we’re going to lean more in that direction.”

As Fleury indicated, the hope is that will allow Darnold to be more decisive beginning with a game Thursday night in Denver against the Broncos.

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Darnold has cited a lack of decisiveness as contributing to him throwing five interceptions in three games since returning from a glute injury suffered five plays into the season opener.

“For me personally, I’m going to try to be as decisive as I can be and go through my reads and trust what I see, trust my feet, all those things,” Darnold said. “But can’t have turnovers, got to protect the football in this league. And if you don’t, you’ll pay.”

The Seahawks have learned that the hard way. 

They had four turnovers Sunday against the 49ers, with three leading directly to 21 points for San Francisco. Three turnovers led to 20 points in a 33-31 loss at Washington on Sept. 27. 

Seahawks turnovers have led to only three points in the team’s other three games, which not so coincidentally were all wins.

“There needs to be a sense of urgency to get better and have ball security,” Darnold said.

It obviously isn’t just Darnold — three lost fumbles have led to three opponent touchdowns in the Washington and 49ers games.

But as the quarterback, Darnold knows the success of the Seahawks offense starts with him.

As Fleury noted, the Seahawks would have had a more refined offensive plan this week anyway because of having little time to prepare for a game Thursday night.

“But definitely given the feedback that he gave to me and kind of the direction we’re going right now, it just makes sense,” Fleury said.

Some might ask why the Seahawks don’t follow that formula already.

One obvious reason is to try to spring new looks on opponents with plays that they haven’t previously run. Mike Macdonald’s defenses are renowned for throwing new looks and formations at opponents each week.

But with the Seahawks offense coming off its worst game of the season — 4.2 yards per play was far off its season average of 5.5 that ranks 13th in the NFL — the Seahawks and Darnold want to lean on executing what they do best more than deceiving opponents.

Quarterbacks offering their input, of course, is nothing new. Until the 1970s it was common for quarterbacks to call their own plays.

Fleury, who worked with Darnold in San Francisco in 2023 before being named offensive coordinator for the Seahawks in February to replace Klint Kubiak, who became coach of the Raiders, said Darnold has a significant hand in the game plan.

“We have weekly conversations about each game plan and then what concepts he’s most comfortable with and which concepts with which receivers he’s most comfortable with,” Fleury said. “So it’s just constant communication between the two of us to get to stuff that when the call comes in, he’s like, ‘Absolutely, I know we’re moving the ball on this one.'”

The losses against the Commanders and 49ers have put the Seahawks’ season at an early crossroads at 3-2. The team knows it can ill afford any more losses with the 49ers off to a 5-0 start and what looks like the more favorable schedule the rest of the way.

It’s also a critical time for Darnold to halt the increasing talk that maybe his turnover-less postseason that played a big role in Seattle winning the Super Bowl is the outlier and the recent interceptions are proof that he could be due for regression this season.

Darnold said his response this week is to simply “trust the process” he has developed over the last few years and led to last season’s success.

“For me, it’s easy to overthink things when you’re not having as much success as you’d like,” Darnold said. “So for me it’s just continuing to do what I do.”

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That doesn’t mean he doesn’t try to assess what is leading to the turnovers.

He had two interceptions Sunday that he and Fleury describe as one that was not the best decision and another that was not the best throw.

Darnold’s first interception was on his first throw of the game, a third-and-10 play to Jaxon Smith-Njigba on a pass to the sideline that went right to 49ers cornerback Renardo Green, who was sitting on the route.

“He was trying to be aggressive to get the first down in that situation,” Fleury said. “The check down might not have moved the chains (and) he has a sense of urgency to be better on third down as well. So I understand the throw. But playing it a little safer is something that we’ve been talking about.”

The other came on his first throw of the second half when he tried to hit tight end Elijah Arroyo and Green got his second pick of the game, undercutting Arroyo to get to the ball first.

“I’ve got to put more air under it and let him go try to get it,” Darnold said.

The Seahawks offense — while exhibiting some obvious room for improvements — is hardly broken.

It is averaging 26.8 points per game on the season, eighth in the NFL and not too far off the 29.2 of last season that ranked second and has averaged 30 points over its last three games, fourth in the NFL. The Seahawks are also averaging 0.451 points per play, a metric that attempts to measure an offense’s overall efficiency. 

“It’s not like we are getting blown out,” Fleury said “… They made some plays when we didn’t and we’re just going to keep focusing on our process, make sure that we’re getting better each week and let the outcomes take care of themselves.”

Notes

— The Seahawks on Tuesday activated receiver Irv Charles from injured reserve, releasing running back Velus Jones Jr., to make room on the 53-man roster. Charles is expected to have a substantial special teams role, specifically as a gunner. The Seahawks re-signed Jones to the practice squad, taking the place of cornerback Trevon Diggs, who was signed to the 53 on Saturday when they placed rookie cornerback Julian Neal on injured reserve.

— Linebacker Drake Thomas (ankle) was again listed as DNP on the team’s practice report. The Seahawks did not actually practice so the report was an estimation. Smith-Njigba (ankle) was listed as limited.