📝Grade the offseason moves!
Are you in support or not of the Seahawks major offseason moves?
The Seattle Seahawks are quite different today than they were two weeks ago. How would you grade John Schneider’s five biggest moves of 2025 and the job that the GM has done thus far?
Trading Geno Smith for a 3rd round pick
A 34-year-old quarterback with one year left on his contract and due $31 million in 2025 was traded for the 92nd pick in the draft.
If that still sounds like a lowball, keep in mind that teams are stingier than ever with draft picks and that the Raiders gave up the pick they got for Davante Adams (a player much closer to the Hall of Fame than Geno) to get him.
So if you are against the move, it is important to remember that the draft pick return was probably as good as it could get, and so your judgment might have more to do with the decision to make a change at quarterback at all.
Trading DK Metcalf for a 2nd round pick
Same story here: The 52nd pick in the draft that Seattle got from Pittsburgh is so far the highest 2025 pick moved for any player in the league. It’s a better return than the Bills got for Stefon Diggs, better than what the Chiefs got for L’Jarius Sneed, and better than what the Texans got for Laremy Tunsil.
This decision seems less about Metcalf as a player and more about the $150 million contract he signed with the Steelers. So the grade is really not, “Should the Seahawks have kept DK Metcalf?” and is instead, “Should the Seahawks have paid Metcalf $30 million/year?” in lieu of the draft pick and the cap savings.
Signing Sam Darnold to 3-year, $100 million contract
More accurately, the Seahawks are paying $37.5 million to give Darnold a one-year trial run. If he’s successful enough, Seattle will keep Darnold in 2026 at a relatively low cost of $27.5 million with $10 million in incentives.
This should make Darnold about the 10th-most expensive QB in the NFL next season, but his cap number is lower than if the Seahawks had kept Geno Smith on his previous contract.
The upside is that Darnold is seven years younger than Smith, while the risk is the fact that he has only had one good season out of seven “tries”.
Signing Cooper Kupp to a 3-year, $45 million contract
Another very straightforward risk/reward balancing act here:
Kupp has been as good of a receiver as any team can hope to have
Kupp is turning 32 and has been injured in each of the last 3 years
Without the full financial details out yet, you’ll have to judge this signing as if he’s going to cost about $15 million per year. That number ranks outside the top-20 for receivers and is almost one-third what Ja’Marr Chase just signed for with the Bengals. Of course, Kupp isn’t going to do what Chase does, but I would rank him above some $20 million receivers like Brandon Aiyuk ($30), Deebo Samuel, and Calvin Ridley.
Relatively speaking, the Seahawks don’t need Kupp to be his vintage self to be worth his price. They only need him to be pretty good — we have to judge $15 million in today’s context, which is that remarkably it is not a lot of money for a receiver. That being said, you can still feel it’s too much for a 32-year-old oft injured slot receiver.
Signing DeMarcus Lawrence to 3-year, “$42 million” contract
We don’t really have to weigh this signing against releasing Dre’Mont Jones because every Seahawks fan was eager to make that move. On it’s own merit, was signing 33-year-old DeMarcus Lawrence — averaging about 5 sacks per year over the past six years — for about $10 million per year a good idea?
Lawrence’s initial number reported was $42, but it was later revealed that $10 million of that is incentives. Though he does have $18 million guaranteed, Lawrence’s AAV is $10.8 million, which puts him fairly low on the EDGE totem pole for contracts.
John Schneider final grade
Not his final-final grade, but with the moves he’s made so far, how do you grade the start of Schneider’s second free agency? Both moves made and not made.
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Seaside Joe 2205
I went all A's and expected to give out B-C on average. But breaking down each transaction; I have to admit that I'm happy with each of them. WRs on a 3rd contract are never a good bargain. That's not even hyperbole. DK may kill it this year, and I hope he does because I like him. But I'll be keeping an eye out over the length of the contract.
I feel like Geno is better than Darnold. Or at least I did until I watched the first 10 (yeah, condensed) Vikings games last year. I have 7 more to get through, but the narrative that he folds under pressure isn't REMOTELY holding up so far. Just through that undeated strecth they had, he had large poweful men with bad intentions in his face as soon as the ball was snapped over and over some games. And he made a play! This *seems* to be a guy figuring out the QB position in this league. In a vacuum, I'd maybe still lean Geno, but in spite of the blame he took towards the end, he didn't cost his last team. We'll know when he suits up in real games.
Kupp is old and not the style of reciever I had hoped to replace Lock, let alone DK and MVS surely isn't it. But just the fact I've sports-hated Cooper Kupp so much for doing what I didn't think he would pull off for so long -plus that fact he will do it against the Rams -gives this one an automatic A as well. We didn't pay him big $ for WR, as you note.
Which brings us back to the final question on JS. I can't possibly bring his grade below an A if I gave every signing and trade that grade. I want better trenches, and he seems to devalue the offensive side of that. But the draft hasn't even happened. Let alone some of the trades that are bound to come before we are watching games that count.
This fan is tired of watching winning seasons without a playoff win. Changes are necessary. I am optimistic that we made some good ones.
On maybe a seperate note, I just watched the first Rams game to take a look at our WR room sans DK. Obviously one game is never a good enough sample size, but my conclusion is:
JSN is a beast and doesnt necessarily need help. The "He was only that good because DK took the D's attention" is total bullshit imo. Also, Kupp was good enough to beat Spoon 1v1 and regularly beat our coverage, so I think he has definitively enough left in the tank to make a significant impact next season. I would even go so far that right now, he is still a better WR than DK. Also, give Cody White a chance, he had awesome plays that game!
Plus: Geno single handedly threw the game at the end with two of the worst redzone INTs you will ever see. I think highly of him, but this game alone shows why it was right to not give him 40+Mil. and trade him for a younger, cheaper replacement.