4 difficult decisions Seattle Seahawks will need to make this offseason

Tough stances must be taken.

Mike Macdonald of the Seattle Seahawks
Mike Macdonald of the Seattle Seahawks | Steph Chambers/GettyImages

The Seattle Seahawks could be facing a troublesome offseason. Last offseason, the team was going through a transition period after removing former head coach and Vice President of Football Operations Pete Carroll from his duties. Mike Macdonald took over as head coach, while general manager John Schneider took over roster control.

Macdonald did a fairly good job in his first season as a head coach at any level, and he guided the team to 10 wins. Many of Schneider's free agency moves (few of the free agents made much of a positive impact on the season) and his misses in the 2024 draft were felt immediately by the team. The GM needs to have a better offseason in 2025.

The team has several questions they need to answer before next season. Four of them follow. The most important one is what to do at the quarterback position.

Four tough decisions the Seattle Seahawks are forced to make this offseason

To keep Geno Smith or to release him

Any consistently successful team needs a long-term good quarterback. Ideally, the quarterback would be in his 20s at the beginning of the run and be able to stay with the team for 10 seasons or more. Geno Smith is 34 years old, and has been a fairly good starter over three years for Seattle, but he is only currently signed through 2025.

Smith wants an extension but the Seahawks might be in no rush to give him one. Seattle will have a new offensive coordinator (Klint Kubiak) next season, and John Schneider might want to wait to see if Smith can limit his turnovers under the new scheme. The quarterback led the league in red zone interceptions in 2024.

Seattle could also save $31 million by releasing Smith. For a team already over the projected salary cap, that much savings might be too much to pass up if the Seahawks are not sold on Smith as the long-term starter. Seattle could then insert Sam Howell as QB1 for at least one year, though that would also imply Seattle expects to go through a mini-rebuild.

Tyler Lockett might need to be released

Lockett is a fan-favorite as much for what he does off the field as on it. His value as a fantastic human being will always outweigh his value as a football player. The wide receiver gets paid to play football, though, and in the NFL that often means tough financial decisions must be made. No one wants Lockett to leave, but the team might not have another other choice.

The receiver is no better than WR3 for Seattle currently, and his productivity diminished greatly this season. He had his lowest number of receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns since 2017. Those numbers should not improve, either, due to Jaxon Smith-Njigba's emergence this season and DK Metcalf's steady production. Seattle could release Lockett and save $17 million.

Which free agents to try to re-sign

According to Spotrac, Seattle is currently over the salary cap by $30,584,534. This obviously means the team is going to have to trim some expensive contracts, such as Dre'Mont Jones and Lockett, to create room to sign other players, draft picks, and fill out the practice squad. The Seahawks have nine players set to hit unrestricted free agency, but are there any priorities to try to re-sign?

Perhaps the two most important ones are linebacker Ernest Jones IV and Jarran Reed. Reed is now in his 30s and teams usually don't want to risk a lot of amount on a player of his age. Jones, though, is only 25 years old and was quite good after being traded to Seattle midseason. Due to Seattle's salary cap position, Jones might be too expensive for the team to be able to re-sign him.

Trade up in the 2025 NFL draft or trade back

Seattle is currently set to pick at number 18 in the draft. That is a bit of no-man's land because the top quarterbacks would likely be gone, and the Seahawks could trade back and pick up the kind of player they want that they could have gotten at 18. Or, depending on how Seattle views Geno Smith, Seattle could try to trade up and be in a position to choose quarterbacks Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders.

Trading up would be a very un-Schneider-like move, but maybe after last offseason's dismal failures in free agency and the draft overall, the general manager feels he must be a lot more aggressive this offseason. Most likely, though, the Seahawks will not move up but trade back and take a defensive player.

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