Over the past three days, the Seahawks traded their starting quarterback of the last two years, moved an All-Pro receiver, released another, and then signed the linchpin of dominoes as their quarterback for 2025.
To think a lot of this could have been avoided by drafting a quarterback after Russell Wilson was traded days after the 2022 NFL calendar began. Seattle received two first round picks from Denver, and passed on several quarterbacks. Catching lightning in a bottle, Geno Smith won Comeback Player of the Year in 2022, as Seattle advanced to the Wild Card round, losing to San Francisco.
Well, Geno Smith is no longer part of the equation, as Seattle traded the 34-year-old to the Las Vegas Raiders for a conditional third round pick (92nd overall) in next month’s NFL Draft. Smith takes over for Aaron O’Connell, and appears to take quarterback off the board for the Raiders, who will be selecting sixth overall. Las Vegas is heavily rumored to draft a quarterback within the first three rounds, but can focus on getting a day-one starter in the first round. Reports have surfaced that Smith requested a trade after Seattle would not offer a contract worth at least $40 million per year.
I mentioned that Seattle missed the playoffs by a single point, and just look at the final standings. Both the Seahawks and Rams were 4-2 within the division, and 6-6 against NFC opponents. The next tiebreaker came down to their head-to-head matchups. Seattle won 30-25 at Los Angeles in Week 1, but lost 26-20 at home in Week 9. The six point loss against the five point win meant that Matthew Stafford was going back to the playoffs instead of Geno Smith, and the other would be sitting home completely.
Not to outdo themselves with the Smith trade, Seattle goes further down the rabbit hole by trading star receiver DK Metcalf to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night for a second round pick next month. Metcalf appears to be reuniting with Wilson, after Justin Fields signed a two-year deal with the New York Jets on Monday. However, Wilson is an unrestricted free agent, and may only be brought back on a short-term contract by the Steelers. Seattle and Pittsburgh will also flip 6th and 7th round picks as part of the Metcalf trade, which Pittsburgh announced they would sign the receiver to a five-year, $150 million extension shortly thereafter. This now has Seattle with pick 18 in the first round, 50 and 52 in the second round, and 82 and 92 in the third round. The five picks between Thursday and Friday are more than any other team in the league, at least for right now.
Metcalf moving was also after a trade request was made by the star, which has become a recurring theme within the NFL. Cleveland’s Myles Garrett requested a trade last month, then ended up signing the largest non-quarterback contract in league history, a four-year extension to stay with the Browns. Lamar Jackson requested a trade a few years ago, and then was signed to the largest contract in league history, until Josh Allen’s astronomical deal on Monday.
After veteran receiver Tyler Lockett was released on Monday, Seattle went from playoff contender to “we’re already looking ahead to 2026” mode in the blink of an eye. Here was a team that was in the playoff chase until the final day of the regular season, and then lost their starting quarterback and two of their top receivers all within 48 hours.
Then came the linchpin.
After guiding the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 record, quarterback Sam Darnold signed a three-year, $100.5 million contract ($55 million guaranteed) with Seattle. Darnold was brought in by Vikings’ head coach Kevin O’Connell to be a bridge in 2024 after first-round pick J.J. McCarthy tore his meniscus in training camp, missing the entire season. There was a lot of scuttlebutt as to whether Minnesota would sign Darnold long term and listen to offers for McCarthy, but ultimately you do not draft a quarterback in the first round if you do not intend to hand over the keys to the offense in short order. There are a lot of pundits who feel that McCarthy could end up performing better in his “rookie” season than any of the quarterbacks that could be selected in the draft.
For Seattle, the choice was simple…take a chance on Darnold, and you have five additional high draft picks to fill some holes with starters. Darnold’s last two games in 2024 were a 31-9 pasting at the hands of the Detroit Lions which decided not only the NFC North champion, but the #1 seed in the NFC, and then a 27-9 hammering to the Rams in the Wild Card round. Darnold was sacked 11 times in two games, nine of them in Los Angeles. Despite throwing for 245 yards, the nine sacks reduced his net passing yards to just 163. Darnold was brought in with the idea that it could be his last shot to be an everyday starter in the NFL. Seattle’s other options would have been Jameis Winston, Aaron Rodgers, or Daniel Jones. Winston is set to be released by Cleveland any minute, Rodgers is rumored to be heading to the Giants, and Jones signed with Indianapolis on Tuesday to compete for the starting job with Anthony Richardson.
The Darnold signing, whilst surprising, should be much easier to track as early as the first year. The three moves mentioned do not put a lot of confidence in Seattle to replicate 2024’s success, but the hope is not to fall so far back that you finish where Arizona did last year.
On the other hand, Baker Mayfield found a career resurgence after a few stopovers on the way to Tampa, being the first overall pick in 2018. Darnold stumbled out of the blocks in New York being drafted third, but your hope is more about slowing the game down as he matures and starting to excel to earn the contract, and less about the system he was put into.
-JC24