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Brady HendersonMar 10, 2025, 08:29 PM ET
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- Brady Henderson is a reporter for NFL Country and covers the Seattle Seahawks for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2017 after masking the group for Seattle Sports activities 710-AM.
SEATTLE — As Seattle Seahawks common supervisor John Schneider fielded questions on the scouting mix about upcoming contract negotiations with Geno Smith’s agent, his solution to one in every of them incorporated crucial qualifier.
“We think him to be our man,” Schneider advised journalists in Indianapolis, “however we need to do what is proper, too.”
Because it seems, the group’s peak decision-maker was once leaving the door cracked for what can be a blockbuster quarterback switch. It all started with the Seahawks buying and selling Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders on Friday for a third-round select amid a breakdown in extension talks, and it was once finished Monday after they agreed to signal loose agent Sam Darnold to a three-year, $100.5 million deal.
The Seahawks are giving Darnold $55 million in promises, in keeping with ESPN’s Adam Schefter, making it a vital wager on their section that he’s going to be higher than Smith.
It is an comprehensible possibility.
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Smith has one of the most NFL’s maximum proficient and correct fingers, having simply damaged his personal single-season franchise file with a 70.4% final touch price. He has led 9 profitable drives during the last two seasons and has a 27-22 file over the past 3, together with 10-7 ultimate yr regardless of a nasty offensive line and no longer 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 ultimate season, together with a league-high 4 within the crimson zone. And whilst trainer Mike Macdonald persistently touted Smith’s toughness and paintings ethic, he additionally famous the quarterback’s room for development as a pace-setter.
At 27, Darnold is seven years more youthful than Smith. He is additionally coming off a greater yr, having led the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 file 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 whilst Darnold would possibly have extra long-term upside than Smith, his struggles within the Vikings’ ultimate two video games — together with an 11-sack debacle of their wild-card playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams — would possibly have equipped a take a look at his ceiling. And with no observe file of sustained luck, there is a possibility he may finally end up being a one-year marvel now that he has left the one NFL atmosphere during which he has excelled.
Darnold is changing Smith as Seattle’s quarterback after agreeing to a $100.5 million deal. Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Pictures
Darnold was once extensively considered as a sadness because the No. 3 select in 2018, having bounced round from the New York Jets to the Carolina Panthers after which the San Francisco 49ers — the place he performed beneath new Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak — prior to touchdown in Minnesota.
Darnold ranked thirty ninth in QBR (42.1) over his first six seasons prior to thriving beneath the steering of Vikings trainer Kevin O’Connell, who may not be following him to Seattle. Nor will he have the similar elite tandem of receivers that he was once throwing to in Minnesota — Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison — now that the Seahawks have traded DK Metcalf and launched Tyler Lockett, leaving them without a confirmed choices out of doors of Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
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The ones strikes, in addition to the Smith business, got here after the Seahawks launched 4 different veterans as a part of a vital purge.
Their roster will glance dramatically other — particularly on offense — however the Seahawks are not deliberately taking a step again in 2025 in order that they may be able to take two steps ahead in 2026. They go back maximum in their key avid gamers from what was once a top-10 protection, and so they now have abundant cap house in addition to 5 draft selections a few of the peak 100 to handle their evident wishes within the inside in their offensive line and receiver corps.
The Seahawks have performed this prior to beneath Schneider. What was once considered at the out of doors as a rebuild in 2018 — after they moved on from a few of their Legion of Increase stars — as an alternative ended in a playoff look. The similar factor took place in 2022, when they traded quarterback Russell Wilson and minimize linebacker Bobby Wagner.
Whether or not that historical past repeats itself this season will rely, greater than the rest, on whether or not Schneider and Macdonald were given their quarterback switch proper.
