All signs point to the San Francisco 49ers seeing an old friend, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, in Week 1 of the regular season when the two NFC West squads upon up the year.
Darnold, who spent 2023 as Niners quarterback Brock Purdy's primary backup and then telegraphed that into a wildly successful bounce-back 2024 campaign with the Minnesota Vikings, is now up north with the Hawks after his three-year free-agent deal went official last March.
The former top pick of the New York Jets back in 2018 credited Purdy in helping revitalize what was otherwise turning into a bust of a career.
However, there's room for controversy in Seattle.
Last April, the Seahawks used a Round 3 draft pick on former Alabama signal-caller Jalen Milroe, suggesting they weren't entirely set on Darnold being a long-term figurehead at Lumen Field. While Milroe might not be an immediate contender to start over the veteran just yet, it doesn't take much to see why those rumblings are imminent. Rookie QBs are popular commodities, after all.
Well, Hawks head coach Mike Macdonald shot all that down recently.
Mike Macdonald effectively guarantees 49ers will see Sam Darnold in Week 1
Speaking to reporters on Seattle Sports radio, Macdonald closed the door on any would-be quarterbacking controversy between Milroe and Darnold.
"It’s just not going to happen," Macdonald declared, via ESPN's Brady Henderson. "Sam’s our starting quarterback. We love him. He’s doing a tremendous job."
On @SeattleSports with @BrockHuard and @TheMikeSalk, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald was asked if something beside injury could lead to Sam Darnold not starting.
— Brady Henderson (@BradyHenderson) June 3, 2025
"It’s just not going to happen," he said. "Sam’s our starting quarterback. We love him. He’s doing a tremendous job."
From this vantage point, it appears as if Darnold would have to wildly flop in training camp or suffer some sort of serious injury to not be named the regular-season starter over Milroe. If there was any budding quarterback controversy, it likely wouldn't hit a boiling point until well within the regular season, at which point San Francisco and Seattle would have already concluded their scheduled Week 1 meetup.
And that means it'll be Purdy versus Darnold in an entertaining opening-week NFC West showdown.