3 mistakes Seattle Seahawks cannot repeat in 2025 offseason

Please, no.

San Francisco 49ers v Seattle Seahawks
San Francisco 49ers v Seattle Seahawks | Cooper Neill/GettyImages

Judging by the level of disappointment experienced by Seattle Seahawks' fans through the 2024 season, it may be hard to remember that the ’24 Hawks finished with a winning record. Their 10-7 mark was an improvement in 2023, as was their second-place finish in the division.

Still, 2024 was extremely frustrating for a number of reasons. Though a few young players did step forward, too many of the youngsters who Seattle hopes to build around did not look ready for prime time. John Schneider, in his first season without Pete Carroll by his side, made some truly awful personnel decisions. New coach Mike Macdonald surrounded himself with a largely inexperienced group of assistants.

It showed up in some uneven play during the season. A three-game win streak to open the season. Losing five out of the next six. Winning four in a row coming out of the bye, followed by a two-game mini-losing streak that essentially ended the Seahawks’ playoff hopes. They were the definition of an inconsistent team.

Seattle Seahawks cannot afford to repeat these mistakes in the 2025 offseason

Their point differential for the season was +7. I suppose that’s better than -7, but still, it is hard to get more average than that. (Unless you are the Houston Texans, another 10-7 team who accomplished the rare dead even point differential, scoring and surrendering the exact same number of points on the season.)

Not a bad year – not a good year. Couple that with an aging QB, no successor in place, and minimal salary cap space to work with, and Seattle finds itself in a precarious position as it begins the 2025 off-season. Here are three things Schnieder and Macdonald must do to avoid another mediocre season or worse.

Better due diligence with personnel decisions

Anyone can swing and miss in free agency. Even the best teams blow it every once in a while. But Schnieder’s track record in 2024 has to have fans wondering what he was possibly thinking and doing with his time.

He signed two starting-caliber linebackers who were both jettisoned in the middle of the season. Whether he simply was not on the same page with his new coach or whether they both badly misjudged how Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker would fit into the defense, it was a very poor use of resources.

He traded another of his free agent acquisitions, center Nick Harris, in August. He felt comfortable doing so because he had just snapped up an even better center, Connor Williams, who was recovering from an injury suffered late in the 2023 season. Williams played nine games for Seattle before announcing his retirement in early November. His decision took everyone by surprise.

Those are all unforced errors on the part of Schneider. Any one of them could be deemed a gamble that went wrong, That happens. But having so many of them clustered so close together is unacceptable. It calls into question whether the front office is capable of making sound decisions going forward.

Don't ignore the offensive line

Schneider knew the offensive line was an issue entering the 2024 off-season. Everyone knew. And he did bring in players to help address that problem. The problem in hindsight is that he simply did not prioritize the position enough to invest much of his admittedly limited resources in improving the line.

Laken Tomlinson and the Nick Harris/Connor Williams project was, at best, a lateral move to replace departing starters Damien Lewis and Evan Brown. Overall production did not improv,e and the club was left in a weaker position going forward. Most of the other additions were low-round draft picks and low-level free agents, none of whom made a mark.

Apart from Tomlinson and Harris/Williams, the two highest-profile players Schneider acquired were veteran George Fant and rookie Christian Haynes. Both made sense on paper. Fant was to provide some insurance while right tackle Abraham Lucas worked his way back from injury. Haynes was supposed to challenge Anthony Bradford at guard.

Fant was plagued by his own injuries and Haynes was a major disappointment, falling further and further down the depth chart as the season went on. Whether Haynes was over-drafted remains to be seen. Perhaps he needed a year to acclimate to the pros. But a third-rounder was always going to be a long shot to be a major contributor in his first season.

The real question is whether Schneider should have passed on selecting Byron Murphy in the first round and taken one of the many high-caliber linemen who were chosen shortly after him.

There is no guarantee that would have solved the problem, but the defensive line was a relative strength and the offensive line was not. This off-season, the GM has to make the offensive line a bigger priority.

Find a backup quarterback

He may already be on the roster. I am not prepared to give up on Sam Howell yet. The few times we saw him in 2024 were disasters, but he boasts some qualities that could still make him a serviceable NFL QB – either a low-end starter or a plus-backup. The important point is that Macdonald and Klint Kubiak need to reach a decision on Howell’s potential quickly. If they decide he is not the guy, they need to make a definitive move to find a new potential successor to Geno Smith.

Geno turns 35 in October, and his rapport with DK Metcalf seems to be an issue. He also still has some trade value, perhaps enhanced now that Pete Carroll is calling the shots in Las Vegas. But Schneider cannot even entertain the notion of moving Geno until he has another QB in place.

If it is not Howell, Schneider might look to former starters with decent ceilings like Marcus Mariota or Justin Fields. That is basically what Geno was before coming to the Northwest. Mariota and Fields are free agents. They only make financial sense if Schneider plans to move Geno.

If he wants to leave him in place, he may look for a long-term project in the draft. Seattle will not be in a position to choose a blue-chip QB in 2025, but there are a fair number of pretty good players who will be around on days two and three.

The bottom line is fairly simple. Schneider and his scouting department need to do a better job than they did last year. If they do, there is still enough talent to keep the Hawks competitive as Macdonald continues to put his stamp on the franchise.

More Seahawks news and analysis:

Schedule