Seahawks passing splits: Improvements across the board from 2024-2025

How the offensive line and Sam Darnold have made the Seahawks better this season

On Thursday, I wrote that the Seahawks have only lost one game by more than four points in the last year of football. It was December 15th, 2024, a Sunday night home game against the Green Bay Packers, and Seattle lost 30-13. A note that I failed to include about the game was the role that Sam Howell played in the loss, albeit a pretty insignificant one given that the Seahawks were already down 20-3 when he replaced Geno Smith.

Even so, pundits or fans who would not put blame on Smith (and that’s fine if you’re one of them, I’m just pointing out that Week 15 was our only chance to make a comparison) got their chance to "prove” that the quarterback was making the most out of a bad situation:

-Smith went 15-of-19 for 149 yards, 3 sacks, and an interception

-Howell went 5-of-14 for 24 yards, 4 sacks, and an interception

From the middle of the third quarter when Howell entered the game to the final score, Seattle had a net return of +3 yards on passing plays and an interception that led to a Packers touchdown.

But does the presence of an overmatched quarterback in the backup role prove that the starter is the best person for the job?

If ever there was a fanbase that could argue that there’s nothing to fear after trading away a starting quarterback without an obvious succession plan, it’s the one that saw the Seahawks get better after replacing Russell Wilson with Geno Smith.

This is not going to be about comparing Sam Darnold to Smith and nothing else matters because we know that Seattle underwent extensive changes on the offensive side of the ball from 2024 to 2025:

-OC Ryan Grubb to OC Klint Kubiak

-OL coach Scott Huff to OL coach John Benton

-WR DK Metcalf to WR Cooper Kupp

-LG Laken Tomlinson to LG Grey Zabel

-C Connor Williams to C Jalen Sundell

-TE Noah Fant to TE AJ Barner, etc.

-RT Abe Lucas hasn’t missed any games

Obviously Jaxon Smith-Njigba is having a season for the ages so far too (he is on pace for 950 yards at home, which would be 200 more yards than the franchise record) but that also goes hand-in-hand with the overhaul of the Seahawks offense from last year; JSN could be a better player and also benefitting from Seattle’s changes around him.

I’m going to share comparisons between the Seahawks passing offense in 2024 and 2025, which means that naturally Geno Smith and Sam Darnold’s names are going to come up a lot, but that doesn’t have to mean that this is solely about Seattle getting a quarterback upgrade. The Seahawks upgraded their entire passing offense and the results are astounding:

Seahawks at home

2024:

Smith threw 13 interceptions at home last season — the most in the NFL — and was sacked 31 times, losing 218 yards. Only a few other quarterbacks threw this many interceptions at home per start last season: Kirk Cousins, Brock Purdy, Will Levis, and Jameis Winston.

Smith’s passer rating at home of 85.8 ranked 20th out of 25 quarterbacks who had at least 180 pass attempts, putting him just below Russell Wilson at 87.2 and just above Purdy at 85.7.

This does not mean that every quarterback who is bad one year is bad every year — Daniel Jones was even worse at home last season — but the Seahawks made far too many mistakes at Lumen Field and that’s why they had a 3-6 home record, including losing 6 of their last 7 in Seattle.

2025:

In four home games, Darnold has 7 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, and has only lost 19 yards on three sacks. Darnold is on pace for just 38 yards lost on sacks, which would be an improvement of 180 yards compared to 2024. His 2.75% sack rate is the second best at home this season, only behind Bo Nix. Is that better offensive line play, better play calling, and better quarterbacking? Yes, it’s a combination of everything, including opponents.

The point is that the entire offense is clicking better at home this season and making fewer mistakes. Darnold’s 111.4 home passer rating ranks 9th, his 9.17 adjusted Y/A ranks 5th, and his 70.8% completion rate is 7th.

I can’t ignore that Geno Smith leads the league with 7 home interceptions despite only playing in three games there so far. Since 2023, Smith’s 25 home interceptions is six more than any other QB. You’ll never guess who is third:

Darnold is actually third in home touchdowns since last season with 28, only one behind Jared Goff and Baker Mayfield. Darnold has the sixth-best home passer rating since 2024.

Seahawks on third down

2024:

Last season, the Seahawks had a 74.7 passer rating and 5.0 adjusted net yards per pass attempt on third down compared to 94.4 on first down and 98.3 on second down. Smith had 5 touchdowns and 7 interceptions on third down, getting sacked 16 times and losing 130 yards.

2025:

This season, the Seahawks have a 98.8 passer rating on third down with 6.9 adjusted NY/A. Seattle’s passing numbers are also better on first down and they are +2.0 yards on ANY/A on second down. Darnold has been sacked 3 times and lost 24 yards on third down.

Any time you get sacked on third down, you’re either punting, kicking a field goal, or going for it on fourth down. Point being that a sack is a drive killer and Seattle’s doing a much better job of efficiently passing on third down this season even though the Seahawks still struggle (27th) to convert them.

The Seahawks kind of need another third down threat. Even though A.J. Barner has caught 6-of-6 targets with 3 first downs and a touchdown, that’s not a lot of volume. Should Seattle target him more?

Barner is on pace for about 16 third down targets, which would be the same as Noah Fant last year. However, JSN had 39 third down targets in 2024, Metcalf had 29, and Tyler Lockett had 24. Where is the guy in between the 16 and 30? Should Tory Horton get more third down targets? More targets in general?

Although Seattle has cut down on mistakes, they need to convert more third downs and the best way to do that is to have better first and second downs and fewer penalties.

Seahawks in the 4th quarter

2024:

Smith had 6 TD/6 INT in the fourth quarter last season and was sacked 17 times for a loss of 127 yards. His passer rating was 84.4.

Passer rating has been mostly the same, but other stats have improved.

2025:

With only one first quarter interception, Darnold’s passer rating is 136.8 to start the game compared to 89.0 last season. With zero third quarter interceptions, Seattle’s passer rating has gone up from 85.6 to 116.4. How you start each half matters.

But it also matters how you finish and Darnold has had late fourth quarter turnovers in both of the Seahawks losses. One via sack by Nick Bosa and one on a tipped pass-turned-interception. However, Darnold’s 9.4 yards per pass attempt in the fourth quarter is the 2nd-highest behind only Matthew Stafford’s 10.1. Darnold’s 136.8 first quarter passer rating is first.

Although not all of Seattle’s passing issues can be blamed on the quarterback, sometimes things just get better when you split.

Seaside Joe 2433