RENTON, Wash. — Since Mike Macdonald named Drew Lock the Seattle Seahawks’ starting quarterback for Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals, the cool and confident backup has prepared accordingly.

As usual, Lock has wandered around the team’s practice facility toting a bottle of coconut water, often with the same arm in a compression sleeve. Underneath that loose demeanor, though, is a quarterback who prepares each week as if he will start, just like he has 28 other times in the pros.

The 29-year-old Lock is comfortable with his role with the Seahawks, where he is in the midst of his fourth of eight NFL seasons. But make no mistake: Lock isn’t content being Sam Darnold’s benchwarmer.

“I feel like that edge is always there. It shouldn’t leave you,” Lock said Thursday. “And, honestly, the day it leaves me will be the day that I start looking at myself in the mirror, like, what are we doing?

“You always want to play. You always want to be the guy.”

Sunday will mark Lock’s first regular-season start since the end of the 2024 season with the New York Giants, between two stints in Seattle. Since then, live reps have been sporadic, save for his coming off the bench last week to complete 16 of 22 passes for 187 yards and a touchdown in a 13-10 season-opening win against the New England Patriots.

To stay fresh, the No. 42 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft has gotten creative. He keeps a whiteboard close to his bed, one of the many surfaces Lock uses to diagram plays throughout the week.

During a typical game week, Lock estimated he receives roughly 5-10 repetitions with the first-team offense. Macdonald said Wednesday that Lock will get the vast majority of them this week in practice, though third-stringer Jalen Milroe will receive some first-team reps, too.

To a degree, Lock is in the midst of some crammed preparations, much like a college kid studying for final exams. He wouldn’t want it any other way, though.

“I’m attacking this week,” Lock said. “It’s obviously not the same.”

Rather than Lock helping Darnold get ready for Seattle’s next opponent, it’s been the other way around in this week’s quarterback meetings. Lock said he’s been leaning pretty heavily on Darnold, who is out with a glute injury.

But he’s also much more prepared to start than when he first came into the league. Lock has struggled with turnovers at times during his career, including when he tossed a league-high 15 interceptions in 2020 with the Denver Broncos.

Seahawks tight end Eric Saubert played with Lock the following season in Denver, when the QB lost a preseason competition to veteran Teddy Bridgewater before starting three games, all losses. Saubert said he quickly picked up on the talent that made the Missouri product a high draft pick. Over the past few years, Saubert thinks Lock has developed into more than a quarterback with plenty of tools.

“Intangibles are all there, like arm strength, ability,” Saubert said. “I think he’s more poised, smarter. I don’t want to say more of a pro, but we all grow in that way. He’s just on top of his stuff and knows who he is and plays confidently.”

Saubert is not alone. The praise for Lock over the last week, though, dates to when the Seahawks first acquired him from the Broncos in the blockbuster Russell Wilson trade in 2022.

Upon Lock’s arrival in Seattle, current general manager John Schneider and then-head coach Pete Carroll made him feel at home.

“The belief that they had in me was through the roof,” Lock said, “and it really, it warmed my heart a little bit.”

Macdonald shares that conviction in Lock, whom he looks at as a consummate teammate and role model for the team.

“He’s got a great balance about him of being a true professional,” Macdonald said. “But also, he’s a loose and focused guy. He’s a warrior in the garden. He’s all the things that we want from our players.”

The Lee’s Summit, Mo., native has not only endeared himself to plenty of Seahawks personnel, but also made the Pacific Northwest a second home. Lock and his wife, Natalie, have two kids, both born during his time with the Seahawks.

Simultaneously, Lock has come up big in a few key moments for the Seahawks. He was integral to a comeback victory on “Monday Night Football” against the Philadelphia Eagles late in the 2023 season — throwing the game-winning touchdown with 28 seconds to play — just as he was in this year’s season opener.

In the process, he has won over Seattle’s locker room, which is littered with teammates touting Lock as the best second-string quarterback in the league.

“Drew’s the man, and everyone backs him and stands by him,” Saubert said. “We know we can win with him, and we all love him as a person, too and as a leader.”

There’s a reason the Broncos, at one point, looked at Lock as their quarterback of the future. His makeup and skill set point to being the face of a franchise.

That is not Lock’s role these days, but at least for one week, all eyes are on him. He wouldn’t want it any other way.

“That’s the mentality you have to have: We’re going to win or lose this game because of how I played today,” Lock said. “That’s the mentality.”

Notes: Darnold sat out again Thursday after missing Wednesday’s practice. Safety Ty Okada (hamstring), who was sidelined for Week 1, did not practice. Nickel back Nick Emmanwori (ankle) and wide receiver Tory Horton (hamstring), who each missed the opener due to injury, practiced on a limited basis.