Looking At The Seahawks Hectic Offseason

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If you’re a Seattle Seahawks fan like myself, you know how chaotic this offseason has been. “Chaotic” may even be an understatement with what general manager John Schneider has been cooking up. So far, the Seahawks have already fired their offensive coordinator, traded their quarterback and star receiver, cut a franchise legend, signed a new quarterback to a 100-million-dollar contract, and signed a former Super Bowl MVP. If you think that’s crazy, we still haven’t even had the draft yet. If you don’t remember, the Seahawks started off the season 3-0, so how did we get to this point? Let me tell you.

The Seahawks fell to 3-3 after playing three games in ten days, which is not ideal, but one of those losses was to the New York Giants, which was inexcusable. They beat the Atlanta Falcons, moving to 4-3, but after DK Metcalf got hurt, Seattle fell to 4-5 going into their bye week. This is where everything changed. Seattle went into San Francisco, a place where they hadn’t won since 2021, with their season on the line. Geno Smith came up clutch with a game-winning drive, running in for the touchdown with 12 seconds left. Beating the 49ers ignited the Seahawks. Jaxon Smith-Njigba broke out as a star receiver, and the defense that was advertised since hiring Mike Macdonald started to arrive. Leonard Williams kicked into another gear, and the Seahawks were soaring.

The Seahawks were sitting in the number three seed in the NFC with an 8-5 record when they clashed with the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football. The Seahawks started out flat and never found their rhythm. They suffered their second biggest home prime-time loss of the 2000s, losing 30-13. They dropped their next game to the Minnesota Vikings, dropping to 8-6, with their playoff hopes looking very bleak. Even though they won their last two games and finished 10-7, Seattle lost the tiebreaker to the Los Angeles Rams and missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

A big issue of the Seahawks’ season was injuries to running back Kenneth Walker III. This made their run game not a threat, and their play-action game not a threat. With an offensive line that struggled all season, first-year offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb chose to run a super air-raid offense. This did not work. Seattle’s usage of play-action was near the bottom of the league, leaving their offense very one-dimensional. Seattle had the eighth most passing yards per game and total passing yards in the NFL, which improved from 14th the previous season. However, the running game was a different story. Seattle finished with the fifth-worst rushing offense in back-to-back seasons. I don’t know about you, but dropping back to pass consistently with one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL doesn’t seem like a recipe for success.

Seattle hasn’t had any balance in their offense since 2022, ironically, the last time they made the playoffs. Seattle fired Grubb after just one season and hired Klint Kubiak from the New Orleans Saints. Personally, I like this hire. The Saints started off the season with back-to-back 40-point showings before injuries riddled their offense. Kubiak made Rashid Shaheed look good, and I’m already getting excited to see how he will use Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

Ok, let’s talk about the first big moves. Cutting Tyler Lockett and trading DK Metcalf. I think that cutting Tyler Lockett was a move that most Seahawks fans were expecting. His production had started to decline, Smith-Njigba was starting to take over, and his $17 million cap hit was too expensive. As much as I would have loved to see Tyler Lockett retire a Seahawk, I knew that it most likely wasn’t going to happen.

However, the DK Metcalf trade did. I’m sure you heard the rumours that the Seahawks were shopping their star receiver. But just like the Russell Wilson trade rumours, general manager John Schneider shut them down. The real shock was when Metcalf requested a trade. Metcalf had always expressed how much he loved playing in Seattle, so when he wanted out, that was something I was taken aback by. Metcalf was my favourite player. Seeing him go was very tough. But I understood when I saw that the Pittsburgh Steelers were going to pay him $30 million for the next five years. That was something the Seahawks couldn’t have afforded to do, so at least we got a second-round pick for him.

Metcalf wasn’t the only player who wanted more money in Seattle. So did quarterback Geno Smith. Then Seattle shipped him off to the Las Vegas Raiders for a third-round pick. I don’t know how a starting quarterback in the NFL only gets traded for a third-round pick, but it turned out that John Schneider had a plan. That plan was to go big fish hunting and sign Sam Darnold to a 3-year, $100 million contract. Darnold’s coming off his first Pro Bowl nod in his career. There are people questioning if Darnold is the guy to put Seattle over the edge of being a contender, but with the upcoming quarterback draft classes not being the greatest, I think it’s a risk worth taking.

Darnold wasn’t the only splash Seattle made in free agency. Seattle bolstered their defensive line by adding DeMarcus Lawrence from the Dallas Cowboys. The other big move was signing former Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp. The Lawrence signing gives the Seahawks an elite run stopper, adding to a front-seven that includes Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy, Ernest Jones, and Boye Mafe. Seattle’s defense got even scarier. The move to sign Kupp was huge. After losing Metcalf and Lockett, Seattle’s wide receiver room was looking really thin. Even though Kupp has dealt with injuries since his triple-crown season in 2021, he’s proved that he can still play at a high level.

The big thing is Seattle still hasn’t added to their biggest need, the offensive line. Particularly the left and right guard positions. After losing out on Tevon Jenkins and Will Fries in free agency, I’d be shocked if they didn’t draft multiple offensive linemen. Overall, this has been a solid offseason for Seattle, but I’m waiting for the draft to put my final grade on it.

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