The Seattle Seahawks were officially eliminated from playoff contention in Week 17 after every team that Seattle needed help from lost. This means Week 18 versus the Los Angeles Rams is meaningless. It also means Seattle's offseason has unofficially begun.
Heck, Seattle could do a lot of crazy things versus the Rams as the game does not matter. Perhaps play Jaxon Smith-Njigba at quarterback some. Why not? Let's have some fun.
But the team does have some truly meaningful and difficult decisions to make in hopes that the 2025 season will be more successful. Seattle will finish with a winning record and could even reach 10 wins, but the Seahawks have now missed the playoffs in three of the last four seasons, and more changes are needed.
Seattle Seahawks need to release wide receiver Tyler Lockett
No one wants to do this, but financially, moving on from Lockett makes too much sense. If he isn't on the roster next year, the team will save $17 million. Seattle currently has no money to spend next offseason, so some more expensive players are going to have to be let go. That could include edge rusher Dre'Mont Jones and safety Rayshawn Jenkins. It should also include Lockett.
If he were to still be on the roster next season, Lockett would have a cap hit of nearly $31 million but he would be no better than WR3. That is ridiculous. While Lockett is arguably the second-best receiver in franchise history and is a fantastic human being away from football, no WR3 anywhere is worth paying as much as $30 million.
Seattle needs to take Lockett's replacement in the 2025 NFL draft, but that wouldn't need to be a first- or second-round pick. The Seahawks have Smith-Njigba and DK Metcalf, so even without Lockett, a wide receiver would not be a priority for the team in the draft.
Seahawks need to find a new offensive coordinator
If Seattle were to draft a player in the first few rounds then the team would likely give that player a few seasons to see if they can be impactful. That is because a player is just one of 11 on the field at any given time. Coaches are different, of course.
The Seahawks simply cannot give offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb a few years to try to be good. Seattle cannot afford that. Grubb's offense works extremely well in college because the speed of opposing defenses is not as great. He can scheme explosive plays at that level, and his red zone play-calling is not as glaringly bad.
Not all of Seattle's red zone issues are Grubb's fault, of course, but he also the same OC who designs a play that has two receivers running the same kind of route toward the same corner of the end zone, such as Grubb called in Week 16 when Geno Smith threw an incomplete pass because Vikings defenders had an easier job covering Noah Fant and Lockett because both receivers were in the same area.
Smith does deserve some of the blame for the red zone problems, but he also runs the plays that Grubb calls and the plays that Grubb has designed. Any conversation that Smith constantly changes the play calls at the line of scrimmage is unfounded as no quarterback would be allowed to do that play after play. Grubb is more of the issue than Smith.
Seahawks should extend two players
Seattle does need to release some expensive players, but they also need to work on early extensions with a couple of players. One is punter Michael Dickson, who is signed through 2025, but will only turn 29 years old in January. He has consistently been the defensive weapon the Seahawks hoped he would be when he was taken in the fifth round of the 2018 draft.
The other player, also signed through 2025, that the Seahawks need to extend is edge rusher Boye Mafe. His ceiling might be eight sacks in any given year, but he plays the run well, too. He is only 26 years old and should have a number of years left to play at a high level. Plus, working out an extension before Mafe has a season where he gets 13 sacks or so would be a smart move.