Drew Lock Starts Week 2 at Cardinals

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Drew Lock will start Sunday's Week 2 game at the Arizona Cardinals after head coach Mike Macdonald ruled Sam Darnold out with a glute soft-tissue injury. ESPN, NBC Sports, and FOX 13 Seattle all logged the same board: Darnold sits, Lock gets the first-team reps, and Seattle does not plan to place Darnold on injured reserve.

Lock already finished the Week 1 win over New England after Darnold left early. Macdonald said Lock has known he would start this week and will take the full practice load. Jalen Milroe stays as the backup. The club is not adding another quarterback while Darnold recovers. That is the honest midweek read for a reigning Super Bowl roster that suddenly needs a bridge start in the desert.

What Macdonald locked in

Darnold's injury is the same glute issue Seattle described as a "very unique" soft-tissue problem earlier in the week. Macdonald's Wednesday presser made the Week 2 call official. No IR means the Seahawks still believe the absence can stay short of a four-game minimum. Fantasy managers who already moved Darnold to the bench needed the Lock stamp anyway. Streaming Lock at Arizona is a volatile DFS lean, not a silent autopilot start, because the Cardinals defense gets a full week to prepare for him.

Seattle's Wednesday practice sheet already had Darnold as a DNP. Lock's start is the public confirmation fans were waiting for after the injury board and the walkthrough chatter. The Seahawks still get Nick Emmanwori limited and Ty Okada out on the same sheet, so the supporting cast is not fully clean either. Lock's job is to keep the offense on schedule without inventing hero ball.

Cardinals at 4:25 p.m. ET Sunday

Seattle visits Arizona on Sunday, Sept. 20, at 4:25 p.m. ET. A Lock start changes how the Seahawks can call third-and-medium and how often they lean on the run game to shorten drives. Arizona's first Week 2 report mixed rest DNPs for Budda Baker and Trey McBride with limited work for several defensive backs, so the matchup is still fluid into Friday designations.

Thursday and Friday practices are the next public tells for everyone around Lock. Darnold's timeline stays week to week without an IR stamp. Lock's ceiling Sunday is efficient football in a division road game, not a sudden rewrite of Seattle's season plan.

Lock under center in the desert. That is the Week 2 Seahawks board until Macdonald says otherwise.