The moves are coming eventually for the Seattle Seahawks. They have to be. The team is still well over the projected salary cap for 2025 even after restructuring defensive lineman Leonard Williams' deal. Seattle simply cannot operate financially next season without creating cap room.
There are a vast number of ways to make room, though. The financially easiest way is to release expensive players. The list of potential cut candidates includes wide receiver Tyler Lockett, edge rusher Dre'Mont Jones, and safety Rayshawn Jenkins, among others. Those moves alone would get Seattle back under the cap.
Another option is to restructure more deals or sign players to extensions. Wide receiver DK Metcalf and quarterback Geno Smith are two players the team could do this with. Both have contracts that run through next season and signing them to an extension would lower the cap hit in 2025. Metcalf, at least, is young enough to likely be productive for several more seasons. He is only 27 years old.
One NFL expert believes the one move the Seahawks will make this offseason is to trade DK Metcalf
Smith is 34 years old and there is no guarantee the team is sold on him being a long-term QB1. The Seahawks might want to see how well he does under new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak first.
Trading Smith is probably not a good option as other teams are not probably going to offer much back in return for the quarterback. At least, not a high draft pick, likely not even as high as a second-rounder.
Metcalf is different. Seattle should certainly be able to get at least a second-round choice back for him. Every offseason there are rumors that Metcalf can be moved because he is one of the few Seahawks with actual good trade value.
Sports Illustrated's Conor Orr most certainly believes Metcalf will be traded. In a recent article predicting one move each NFL team will make this offseason, Orr says the one thing the Seahawks will do is send Metcalf to another team.
Orr writes, "Metcalf will have plenty of suitors amid a down market and the Seahawks can build around Jaxon Smith-Njigba." And believes the assumed new direction of the Seahawks' offense under Kubiak, which means Seattle will run the ball more, makes Metcalf less important overall to the Seahawks.
He makes sense in his argument to trade Metcalf. The wide receiver will probably be paid $30 million or more a year beginning in 2026. Unfortunately, Metcalf has not been so productive to be worth that to Seattle. Maybe that will change in 2025 if he is still with the team, but after the emergence of JSN last season and Seattle hopefully running the ball more, an even more productive DK Metcalf seems unlikely.