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Brady Henderson
SEATTLE — As Seattle Seahawks basic supervisor John Schneider fielded questions on the scouting mix about upcoming contract negotiations with Geno Smith’s agent, his reply to one in all them included an necessary qualifier.
“We anticipate him to be our man,” Schneider informed reporters in Indianapolis, “however we wish to do what’s proper, too.”
Because it seems, the workforce’s prime decision-maker was leaving the door cracked for what can be a blockbuster quarterback swap. It started with the Seahawks trading Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders on Friday for a third-round decide amid a breakdown in extension talks, and it was accomplished Monday when they agreed to sign free agent Sam Darnold to a three-year, $100.5 million deal.
The Seahawks are giving Darnold $55 million in ensures, in line with ESPN’s Adam Schefter, making it a major wager on their half that he’ll be higher than Smith.
It is an comprehensible threat.
Smith has one of many NFL’s most proficient and correct arms, having simply damaged his personal single-season franchise document with a 70.4% completion charge. He has led 9 profitable drives over the previous two seasons and has a 27-22 document during the last three, together with 10-7 final 12 months regardless of a foul offensive line and never a lot assist from his run recreation.
However Smith is 34 years previous and has been up and down the previous two seasons, rating twenty first in QBR in that span. He threw 15 interceptions final season, together with a league-high 4 within the crimson zone. And whereas coach Mike Macdonald constantly touted Smith’s toughness and work ethic, he additionally famous the quarterback’s room for improvement as a leader.
At 27, Darnold is seven years youthful than Smith. He is additionally coming off a greater 12 months, having led the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 document in his lone season as their starter. Darnold ranked 14th in QBR (60.4) — seven spots forward of Smith (53.8) — en path to the Professional Bowl.
However whereas Darnold may need extra long-term upside than Smith, his struggles within the Vikings’ closing two video games — together with an 11-sack debacle of their wild-card playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams — may need supplied a take a look at his ceiling. And with no monitor document of sustained success, there is a threat he might find yourself being a one-year surprise now that he has left the one NFL setting by which he has excelled.
Darnold was extensively considered as a disappointment because the No. 3 decide in 2018, having bounced round from the New York Jets to the Carolina Panthers after which the San Francisco 49ers — the place he performed below new Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak — earlier than touchdown in Minnesota.
Darnold ranked thirty ninth in QBR (42.1) over his first six seasons earlier than thriving below the steerage of Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, who will not be following him to Seattle. Nor will he have the identical elite tandem of receivers that he was throwing to in Minnesota — Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison — now that the Seahawks have traded DK Metcalf and launched Tyler Lockett, leaving them with no confirmed choices outdoors of Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Those moves, in addition to the Smith commerce, got here after the Seahawks launched 4 different veterans as a part of a major purge.
Their roster will look dramatically completely different — particularly on offense — however the Seahawks aren’t deliberately taking a step again in 2025 in order that they will take two steps ahead in 2026. They return most of their key gamers from what was a top-10 protection, they usually now have ample cap house in addition to 5 draft picks among the many prime 100 to deal with their obtrusive wants within the inside of their offensive line and receiver corps.
The Seahawks have performed this earlier than below Schneider. What was considered on the surface as a rebuild in 2018 — after they moved on from a few of their Legion of Growth stars — as an alternative resulted in a playoff look. The identical factor occurred in 2022, after they traded quarterback Russell Wilson and minimize linebacker Bobby Wagner.
Whether or not that historical past repeats itself this season will rely, greater than something, on whether or not Schneider and Macdonald bought their quarterback swap proper.
