The Seattle Seahawks will be without Sam Darnold for Sunday’s Week 9 home game against the Arizona Cardinals after coach Mike Macdonald ruled the quarterback out Wednesday with a quad injury, though some fans suspect Seattle is sitting Darnold for his performance rather than his health.

The news arrives with the defending Super Bowl champions at 4-4 following Monday night’s 34-17 home loss to the Chicago Bears, and it sends Seattle back to Drew Lock, who finished the season opener after Darnold suffered what was later diagnosed as a glute injury on Seattle’s opening possession.

This time, however, Lock is in line to start while dealing with his own elbow injury.

Fans See a Benching Behind Sam Darnold’s Quad Injury

The theory follows a Monday night in which Darnold threw all 34 of Seattle’s passes, completing 17 for 188 yards with two touchdowns and an interception while taking three sacks. That interception, by James Lynch with 6:01 left in the fourth quarter, gave Chicago the ball at the Seattle 6 and set up the touchdown that made it 34-17.

Darnold’s 79.5 passer rating through Week 8 ranks 26th of 31 qualified quarterbacks, and he has thrown nine interceptions to go with 10 touchdown passes. Pro Football Network’s NFL QB Impact Grade has him at 71.5 through Week 8, 21st of 35 graded quarterbacks.

One fan took the theory a step further: “Soft benching. Darnold never sees the field again as a Seahawk. Biggest liability in football.”

Macdonald, however, laid out a different explanation and a timeline: “Sam injured his quad at the end of the game, so Sam’s going to be out this week. It’s going to be week to week for Sam.”

The Seahawks also aren’t placing Darnold on injured reserve, so a return as soon as the Nov. 15 trip to the Las Vegas Raiders remains possible.

Lock hasn’t played in the last two games because of his elbow, and he was listed only as the emergency third quarterback on Monday while Jalen Milroe served as Darnold’s No. 2. Milroe is slated to back up Lock on Sunday, and Macdonald stood behind both: “We have full confidence in those guys and will have a plan in place.”

The injury label itself caught flak from another fan, who wrote, “‘Quad injury’ is the best silent benching ever.”

One fan widened the theory beyond Seattle: “First it’s Sam Darnold, then it’s Kyler Murray. The soft benchings are underway.”

Holden Cantor, a Los Angeles Rams content creator, reached the same conclusion more bluntly,writing, “He got benched.”

Drew Lock’s Two September Games Put the Backup in the Conversation

While most of the reaction cast the injury as cover for a benching, a second line of thinking focused on what Seattle looked like without Darnold.

One Cardinals fan wrote of Darnold, “Damn, him playing was our only chance of winning. They play better with the backup.”

That argument leans on two September games. Lock completed 16 of 22 passes for 187 yards in relief in the opener, a 13-10 win over the New England Patriots, after Darnold had gone 1 of 2 for 13 yards.

Lock then went 19 of 26 for 235 yards in the Week 2 start at Arizona, throwing all three of his touchdown passes to Jaxon Smith-Njigba in a 31-7 win, and he didn’t throw an interception in either game. PFN’s X account pointed to that start to the season, writing, “Drew Lock was a top-10 QB in our metric in Weeks 1 and 2.”

Lock is in line to face the Cardinals again Sunday at Lumen Field, seven weeks after his three-touchdown day in Glendale.