Seahawks need another 'bad' quarterback
Yesterday's bad could be tomorrow's Super Bowl winner
The NFL got a heavy dose of “the bad quarterback” in 2024, as four of the top-five leaders in passing yards have all been discarded by teams at least once for being disappointments:
Jared Goff, 4,629 yards, 37 TD (Rams traded)
Baker Mayfield, 4,500 yards, 41 TD (Browns traded, Panthers waived)
Geno Smith, 4,321 yards, 21 TD (Jets benched and parted, backup for six more years with other teams)
Sam Darnold, 4,319 yards, 35 TD (Jets traded, Panthers benched, 49ers signed as backup)
Is this a totally shocking and unprecedented storyline? Not exactly.
A little over 20 years ago, four straight Super Bowls were won by teams that had unexpected starting quarterbacks: Kurt Warner, Trent Dilfer, Tom Brady, and Brad Johnson.
Warner and Brady’s stories are a little different, but Dilfer and Johnson had the exact career arc that’s been popularized today by quarterbacks like Geno and Darnold. Dilfer was a top-10 pick who washed out with the Bucs and won a Super Bowl in his first season out of Tampa. Washington gave up a first round pick to get Johnson and he made the Pro Bowl in 1999, but gave up on him after only two seasons and then he won a Super Bowl with the Bucs.
Starting quarterbacks have always come in different shapes, sizes, and skillsets. They also come from different corners of the football universe, whether that’s as a first round pick, a third round pick…
An undrafted free agent who didn’t make the roster of the first team that signed him…
The best player in Milton College history…
A preseason superstar via trade…
Or a free agent who couldn’t punch his ticket in New York…
When we say that the Seahawks need to add another bad quarterback, that’s not an insult…It’s their history. The Seahawks have thrived exclusively with “bad quarterbacks” and if they don’t draft a first rounder this year then it is only logical to wonder which options will be available to them in the offseason, which is a distinct possibility whether Seattle keeps Geno Smith or not.
Sam Howell is under contract for one more season and he was John Schneider’s admirable attempt to add a “bad quarterback” in 2024, but given just how poorly he played in one extended appearance + his status as a fairly mediocre NFL prospect before then, at the very least the Seahawks need to bring in competition.
The last and very last thing that the Seahawks can do at quarterback this offseason is … Nothing.
If Seattle had done nothing in 2019 when nobody else — and I mean nobody else — wanted Geno, where would the Seahawks have turned in 2022 after trading Russell Wilson? An “inconsequential” move at quarterback today could become a starter, or even a Super Bowl winner, in the future.
The Seahawks should add a “bad quarterback” to their roster this year and there are LOADS of options on the market. Who among them is the best option? Let’s run through the list and then take a vote at the end to see which bad quarterback Seaside Joe readers would most support to become Seattle’s next bad quarterback: