Swapping Geno Smith for Sam Darnold barely moves the needle for the Seattle Seahawks, because BOTH players are pretty good. Seattle chose the mystery box.
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With so much quarterback movement across the NFL this offseason, we have yet to touch on the swap the Seattle Seahawks decided to do at the sport’s most important position. Seattle decided to trade away veteran Geno Smith and sign Sam Darnold to a free agent contract. It was an interesting decision for the front office, one that doesn’t make a ton of sense.
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Smith is not a spectacular QB; he’s okay. He isn’t going to single-handedly carry a roster to a championship, but he wouldn’t sink a team either. We would consider him slightly above average, something Darnold had never been before last season. Now, on the Seahawks, with new teammates and a new offensive system, is Darnold suddenly going to go up another level behind one of the league’s weakest offensive lines? Whether Darnold will be better than Smith in the future remains to be seen, and is asking a lot. It also seems to be the swing this front office is banking on. Mystery box it is!
Seattle Seahawks Opt to Roll the Dice
Todd Salem:
This player swap seems to be a case of valuing the unknown more than the known. Smith is a known commodity in the Seattle ecosystem and caps out at above average. Darnold, on the other hand, could be anything; he could even be as good as Geno Smith!
When it seemed like Seattle was pulling a reset, releasing Tyler Lockett, trading away DK Metcalf, as well as Smith, the move made sense. When the Seahawks immediately turned around and signed Darnold to even more money, the thread fell apart. Is Seattle not rebuilding after all and just wanted to get rid of all their productive veterans in favor of question marks? The same thing happened at wide receiver when they replaced Metcalf and Lockett with Cooper Kupp and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
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I can understand the framework of wanting to move on from Smith if you feel his ceiling isn’t high enough in any given season. He is also due a new contract following the 2025 season. The mental gymnastics needed, though, to go from there to signing Darnold to a three year, $100.5 million contract with $52 million guaranteed seems like a bit of a misstep.
Where do you stand? Would Seattle have been better off to just keep Smith? Would they be in a better spot if they still traded Smith but went for a rookie or fill-in piece at the position and went full rebuild? Or is Darnold the right answer for a team looking to challenge for a division title in 2025?
Dan Salem:
Geno Smith and his former Seattle Seahawks teammates who are now all gone represented the prior regime. They were not this coach’s players and it’s very common to see a coach move on after one season and bring in “his” guys. The Seahawks are basically the exact same team they were prior to all of the moves, just whiter. One could easily infer that this coaching staff did not gel with Smith like they wanted to and would rather sign a new QB longterm, Darnold, than have to make a QB decision next offseason. They have hitched their wagon to Darnold permanently in Seattle.
Smith was not as dominating last year as he was when Pete Carroll was coaching in Seattle, so trading him makes sense. He had peaked with the Seahawks, but signing Darnold is a huge risk. Darnold peaked with the Vikings last year, or perhaps he created a new baseline to build from. Either way, he’s with a new team and new coaches. Seattle is not as good as Minnesota, so it’s safe to argue that Darnold will not be as good either. His new coaches obviously feel differently.
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This is a case of making a change for the sake of changing. The Seahawks felt they needed to make changes, because it did not work as well as they thought it would last year. Running it back with the same offensive core was not going to lead to improved results. Yet all of the stats and information point to one obvious truth, Seattle is in the same place it started before free agency. But energy and being on the same page as one another can’t be measured on paper, so we must wait to see if this change was truly one for the better.
To be blunt, Seattle is not a serious contender for the division. They looked good last year, but not good enough. This is a spunky wildcard team that MAY be able to stay ahead of its division rivals, assuming they all have down years. But the 49ers are coming off their down year and the Rams and Cardinals appear stronger than a season ago. The Seahawks are keeping themselves relevant and interesting, but I agree, their new team is simply new. It’s not better.
Meet our Sports Writers:
Dan Salem is Lead Editor and Co-owner of BuzzChomp. He’s an award winning Actor, Director and Producer. Visit M Square Productions for his film work, or get lost in his old-school comedy on Pillow Talk TV. You can follow him on X, TikTok and Instagram. His latest film ‘Alone’ is now on Amazon.
Todd Salem is a Staff Writer and Contributing Editor at BuzzChomp. He’s also a champion of fantasy football and fantasy baseball, dominating leagues for over two decades. Comment below on his unfiltered opinions.
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Seattle Seahawks Photo Credits: foxsports.com and heraldnet.com; fox10phoenix.com via Getty Images
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