Five plays into the 2026 NFL season, our defending Super Bowl champs, the Seattle Seahawks, saw Sam Darnold go down with an unusual hip injury against the New England Patriots. Just like that, Drew Lock was out there, leading the Emerald City to a comeback victory on Opening Night. What happened with Darnold early on was a legit omen for what the first two weeks of the 2026 NFL season have become: a full-blown starting quarterback injury epidemic.
This Ain’t Just About Sam: The League Is Bleeding QBs
Barely ten minutes into his Vikings debut in Week 1, Kyler Murray got knocked out with a concussion. Then Week 2 hit like a truck. We saw three recent first-round quarterbacks go down: Chicago’s Caleb Williams and Washington’s Jayden Daniels, the top two picks from the 2024 NFL Draft, followed by the Giants’ Jaxson Dart. Each injury felt worse than the last. Seriously, nearly 20 percent of the league has been forced to play backup QBs, and we’re only two weeks in with almost 90 percent of the regular season still left! This is why backups matter, folks. Remember when Mac Jones kept the 49ers afloat when Brock Purdy missed almost half of 2025? Or when Davis Mills went 3-0 for the Texans when C.J. Stroud missed three games last season, keeping them in the playoff race? But then you see what happened when Patrick Mahomes got hurt: the drop-off to Gardner Minshew, and later Chris Oladokun, was just too steep for the Chiefs. Some teams clearly protected their most important assets better than others.
Atlanta’s QB Carousel Is a Hot Mess (And We Aren’t Even Done)
When we talk about dipping into QB reserves, the Atlanta Falcons are leading the league in chaos. They were forced to start Cooper Rush for the first two games ahead of either Tua Tagovailoa or Michael Penix Jr. Talk about a tough situation when you don’t even know who your starter is supposed to be! Tagovailoa was the nominal starter until he got hurt, and Penix, the logical replacement, couldn’t even go for the first two weeks. Rush, who struggled in Baltimore last season, did little in his two starts, leading the Falcons to an ugly 0-2. Then Jack Strand, a Division-II prospect who had an encouraging preseason, replaced Rush in Week 2 and threw a pick-6 on his first NFL pass attempt. The hope now is that the often-injured Penix can step in, having been named Atlanta’s Week 3 starter, and run with the job. Kevin Stefanski has the same issue in Atlanta that he had in Cleveland: a whole lotta quarterback uncertainty.
Giants Hit Hard With Dart Out
The New York Giants are also in a really tough spot. Jaxson Dart is now ruled out for the entire season. So, it’s Jameis Winston’s show in New York.
The league is a wild place right now, and the Seahawks, our champs, got a front-row seat to the chaos right on Opening Night. Let’s see how Drew Lock keeps this team rolling while the rest of the NFL figures out who can even take a snap.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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