You know Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider will wheel and deal his way through the 2025 draft. He virtually always does. I expect these three players will be shopped aggressively just before and during the 2025 NFL draft.
It wouldn't be a draft in Seattle without some trades, right, 12s? Seahawks general manager John Schneider has worked the phones to the tune of 34 trades during the draft. It would probably send shockwaves from Renton to Perth, Australia if he didn't do the same this year (the Seahawks were awarded marketing rights for New Zealand and Australia this year, ICYMI).
Granted, not all of these trades resulted in the best possible outcomes. In fact, many were borderline disastrous for the organization. Oddly, it wasn't always a matter of trading down to get more picks that didn't pan out. Schneider traded up to get Darrell Taylor, and we all know how well that worked out. Let's hope the team makes better deals trading players for picks this year.
Seahawks should trade these three players for picks in this year's draft
There are several reasons to trade a player during the draft. I'm talking less about its timing than the trade itself. I'll get to the timing in a bit. First, it could be that the player's performance. Maybe he no longer fits your scheme.
Or perhaps his performance isn't good enough to warrant their contract. Or the team sees the possibility of replacing them with a rookie for a much cheaper deal, even if there's a slight drop in performance.
If the overall talent and fit improve, it doesn't matter if you lose a bit at one position. The Lions are a perfect example of this. They had Barry Sanders for 10 seasons and managed just two division titles and one playoff win.
Nine years of Megatron (Calvin Johnson) netted zero division titles. Heck, Detroit only had two winning seasons with him. So yeah, it's okay to trade even top players if it can improve the team. So, on to my candidates.
Noah Fant
Fant is by no means a bad player. He's good, and at times he's excellent. But at $13.4 million, he also has the second-highest cap hit of any player on the Seahawks for 2025. Leonard Williams has the highest cap hit at $15 million, and is a bargain at that, considering how much impact he's had on the Seahawks' defense.
Fant has nowhere near the same impact on Seattle's offense. In the team's history, no tight end ever has, and they certainly won't in Klint Kubiak's offense. Yes, he targeted George Kittle 90 times as the Niners' passing coordinator in 2023, but that was George Kittle. As the Saints' OC last year, three tight ends got at least 31 targets, no one more than 66.
Considering that A.J. Barner was far more productive than Fant last year on little more than half the targets, Fant should be the top trade target. Fant's productive enough - and at just 28 still young enough - to have decent trade value. Packaged with a lower pick, I can see the Seahawks getting good value for Fant from a team needing a receiving TE, like the Jaguars. Trading Fant would trim $8.9 million off the Seahawks' cap.
Tariq Woolen
Ah, Riq the Freak. He wasn't terrible by any means last season, but he wasn't exactly great. His biggest problem seems to be that he's having difficulty equaling his spectacular rookie season. Well, that, and the fact that he isn't as aggressive as often as he was that year. That's the kind of play that gets you benched. When he is, he's made too many mistakes.
Would I be happy if Schneider and coach Mike Macdonald keep Woolen? Oh, absolutely. Macdonald recently repeated an NFL maxim, "You can never have too many corners."
He spoke about Woolen and said, "I'm really excited about him. We all know what his strengths are, but when he's at his best, he really unlocks our defense, because he takes away the side of the field." He also said that the coaching staff's job is to get the best out of his players.
No lies detected there, coach. But the fact remains that Woolen's performance slipped under one of the best coaches of defensive backfields ever in 2023. I'm pretty sure the 12s remember Pete Carroll, right? Woolen didn't return to his 2022 form after a full season under Macdonald.
So, while he doesn't have the highest cap hit, trading him would result in Seattle's second-highest cap savings. The Seahawks could put that $5.3 million to good use, along with whatever draft capital they get. They'd certainly receive better than the fifth-round selection they used to get him. The recent visit with Shaquill Griffin could play a role here as well.
Sam Howell
Unlike my first two choices here, trading quarterback Same Howell wouldn't have much impact on the Seahawks cap situation. His cap hit is only $1.1 million; consequently, that's exactly what Seattle would save by trading him. On the plus side, there would be zero dead money involved as he has no guaranteed money or bonuses, per overthecap.com.
What the Seahawks would save is a roster spot. With the return of Drew Lock, Seattle now has four QBs on the roster. It isn't very likely that they signed Lock after he wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of East Rutherford, New Jersey, to be their emergency quarterback or sit on the practice squad. I'm not suggesting that they'll just hand Lock the clipboard as QB2, it's more likely that Lock has zero guaranteed money and will compete with Howell for the job during camp.
However, I think it's unlikely that Howell would clearly prove to be the better option at this point. While I supported Howell in the past and still do, there's no reason to believe that Drew Lock wouldn't be equally as good, if not better, if forced into action.
Trading Howell now would be easier than waiting until camp. Regardless of who wins the battle of the backups in the summer, the loser would have virtually no trade value. Schneider can sell the positives for Howell as well as anyone. And at this point, Seattle should take whatever it can get in return.