The Seahawks will host the Cardinals on Sunday for the second meeting of the season between the two NFC West foes, with Seattle winning 31-7 in Arizona in Week 2. As was the case in that first outing, the Seahawks will have Drew Lock at quarterback in place of an injured Sam Darnold. The Cardinals, meanwhile, made a change at quarterback and are going with former WSU standout Gardner Minshew, who came off the bench last week to lead Arizona to a comeback win over the Cowboys.

Here are five things to watch in Sunday's game, including more on both of those quarterbacks:

1. Can Drew Lock thrive in relief once again?

With Darnold suffering a quadricep injury late in Monday's game, the Seahawks will be turning to Lock once again, and coincidentally, this start will be against the same opponent he faced the last time he started. And if the Seahawks can get anything close to the they type of performance they got out of Lock earlier this season, they should be in great shape until Darnold returns.

The Seahawks lost Darnold to a glute injury just a few plays into the season, and over the course of nearly two full games, Lock was outstanding leading Seattle's offense. In that opener against New England, Lock was 16 for 22 for 187 yards and one touchdown without a turnover, good for a 113.3 passer rating, while helping lead Seattle back from a 10-0 deficit. A week later in Arizona, Lock was even better, starting his day with an 82-yard touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba on his first pass attempt, setting the tone for a dominant Seahawks victory in which he went 19 for 26 for 235 yards, three touchdowns and a 139.1 passer rating.

Both teams have changed since Week 2, so there are no guarantees that this game will play out like the previous meeting, but Lock's last start certainly instils confidence in his team heading into a rematch with the Cardinals.

"It gives the entire coaching staff and everybody out there a lot of confidence," offensive coordinator Brian Fleury said. "We know that he's done it at a high level against this particular opponent, and he can handle everything they're going to throw at us, so we feel great going into this game."

2. Will Seattle's defense put a damper on Minshew Mania?

Late in the third quarter of their Week 8 game in Dallas, the Cardinals were down 14 and appeared to be on their way to another loss. But with things not going their way, the Cardinals decided to make a change at quarterback, putting Garnder Minshew in to replace Jacoby Brissett, and that move paid off in a big way. In just over a quarter of action, Minshew threw for 188 yards and three touchdowns, and the Cardinals came back and eventually won the game in overtime. Now, the former WSU standout will make the start for the Cardinals in the state where he became something of a college football icon in his one season with the Cougars, leading WSU to an 11-2 season in 2018 while earning Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year honors and setting off what came to be known as Minshew Mania.

Nearly a decade after taking college football by storm, the Seahawks will try to make sure Minshew's success last week doesn't carry over and set off another wave of mania.

"He's a good player, he's a playmaker," Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said. "He sees the field well. He's got a playmaking ability to him. Decisive with the football. He's done a lot of good things throughout his career, and he's won a lot of games. We have respect for him. It's a complementary good unit, they've played good, complementary football."

Seattle's defense gave up a season-high 363 yards to the Bears last week, including 247 yards and a touchdown for quarterback Caleb Williams, so they'll be plenty motivated to bounce back and put an end to Minshew's feel-good story.

3. Does Seattle's new-look offensive line, and with it, the run game, take a step forward?

The Seahawks were able to acquire Quenton Nelson, one of the best guards of his era, in a trade last week. But while adding a player of Nelson's caliber was a no-brainer for the Seahawks, it did lead to some changes at the position group that relies the most on continuity. With Nelson, a left guard for his entire career, arriving in Seattle, that meant a change for 2025 first-round pick Grey Zabel, who moved to right guard where he replaced Anthony Bradford.

In the long run, having Zabel and Nelson at guard together should be great for Seattle's offense, and they hope that shows up on Sunday, but the reality is there was always going to be something of an adjustment period.

"We had to make the decision and go," Macdonald said. "We're committed to that. We're confident in AB to go in and play good football for us. Also, Grey's going to continue to get better as well. You understand that there's a process. We've played a lot of games with our offensive line missing a guy here or there. Charles (Cross) missed a couple games last year, but a lot of consistency and continuity at our offensive line position, which has been great. It's worth it when you bring in a guy like Quenton (Nelson) to add to the group. He's one of those guys that's going to be a force multiplier for our group; not just our offensive line but our whole offensive unit and our football team. It's worth that initial investment. You want it to go quicker than not, but you also have to understand that there's a process involved. The guys are working their tails off. They're watching tape, they're getting after it. They're putting in the time, they're putting in the investments. I have all the confidence in the world that we're going to have a heck of an offensive line unit."

As the Seahawks' new-look line comes together and improves, the Seahawks are banking on an improved run game to come with that growth. And it's not just the line looking to benefit from new personnel. At running back, the Seahawks welcomed back Zach Charbonnet, who made his 2026 debut last week after tearing his ACL in the playoffs last January, as well as rookie Jadarian Price, who returned from a four-game absence while on injured reserve. Both of those players showed flashes in their return last week, and now the hope will be to get more production out of that duo.

"It's another example of, 'Hey, there's some turnover there with guys that haven't had the reps,'" Macdonald said. "You think of Charbs, he hasn't had a live rep since the injury unfortunately. There's some good stuff. We can run the ball better as a unit. We need to be able to run the ball better; I think we can. The runners are a part of that. They're a part of that collective effort to improve and be more effective.

"You go back, you watch the tape, the feeling that we had after the game of, 'That wasn't the best version of us.' That was the most disappointing thing. As disappointing as it is, as frustrating as it is—as a coach, you get emotional—however, you do have to go in and identify the positive things that do happen. It's not all bad. There are good things that we can build off of, that we will build off of that we've been able to generate up to this point. That's how you have to look at it. If you want to stay as steady as possible and you want to keep climbing and keep growing, that's the mentality you have to have."

4. Can the Seahawks improve in the red zone on both sides of the ball?

One of the strangest stats of the first half of this Seahawks season is the team's red zone defense numbers. Throughout the season, the Seahawks have had one of the league's best defenses by just about any measure but one, with opponents scoring touchdowns on 83.3 percent of their trips to the red zone, the highest rate in the NFL, including a 4 for 4 red-zone performance for the Bears last weekend. That number is up more than 30 percent from last season when the Seahawks finished sixth in red zone defense (51.8 percent).

"The simple fact is we're not good enough in (the red zone), and we have to correct it," defensive coordinator Aden Durde said. "Our mindset is they don't run it in, and right now they're running it in. We have to put ourselves in a better position. Alignment, assignment, simple technique, and fundamentals. We have to have that awareness when we're in there."

And unfortunately for the Seahawks, their red zone struggles aren't confined to one side of the ball. After managing only one touchdown on four red-zone possessions last week, the Seahawks are down to a 46.4 conversion rate, which ranks 29th in the league.

5. Do the Cardinals have any answers for Jaxon Smith-Njigba?

The first time Lock dropped back to pass in the Week 2 meeting between Seattle and Arizona, Smith-Njigba used a nasty double-move to break open down the right sideline, and Lock hit him in stride for an 82-yard touchdown that was the longest catch of Smith-Njigba's career and the team's longest play this season.

That was the first of three touchdowns in an eight-catch, 155-yard performance for Smith-Njigba, who is somehow off to an even better start in 2026 than he was last season on his way to Offensive Player of the Year honors.

While the Cardinals will undoubtedly put a lot of attention on Smith-Njigba, no team has been able to slow him down much this season, with Smith-Njigba reaching the 100-yard mark in seven of the first eight games this season and piling up 985 yards, the second most for a receiver thought eight games in the Super Bowl era.

The Seahawks hope to develop into a more well-rounded team on offense in the second half of the season, with the running game doing more, but given Smith-Njigba's level of play the past two seasons, it's safe to assume he'll be a big focal point of the offense on this and every Sunday going forward.

Smith-Njigba needs only 15 yards on Sunday to become the third player in franchise history with 1,000 receiving yards in three straight seasons, joining Tyler Lockett and Hall of Famer Steve Largent.

With 15 yards and a touchdown, Lockett would join the third player in the Super Bowl era with 1,000 yards and 10 receiving touchdowns in the first nine games of a season along with Cooper Kupp (2021) and Hall of Famer Jerry Rice (1990).

With another 100-yard performance, Smith-Njigba would become the third player in league history with 100 receiving yards in eight of the first nine games of a season, joining Adam Thielen (2018) and Michael Irvin (1995). A 100-yard game would also make him the third player in league history to have at least 20 100-yard games before turning 25, joining Justin Jefferson and Hall of Famer Randy Moss. With 120 yards, Smith-Njigba would pass Tyreek Hill (1,104 in 2022) for the most receiving yards through the first nine games of a season in the Super Bowl era.