5 guaranteed home runs from the Seahawks' 2024 offseason
By Lee Vowell
Seahawks hired Mike Macdonald
A change was needed. Pete Carroll had seemingly lost the ability to get his defenses to adjust. Sure, Clint Hurtt was the defensive coordinator but Carroll was a defensive-minded head coach. If he saw his defenses struggling or a coach unable to get past the problems, Carroll should have - and likely did - step in. That Seattle's defense continued to digress even with a decent amount of talent is a stain on Carroll's career.
Instead of chasing an offensive coach like the rest of the NFC West has done in the last decade, Seattle stuck with what had worked for the most part over the 14 seasons Carroll was in charge. The change, though, is that Macdonald, a highly successful defensive coordinator with the Baltimore Ravens the last two seasons, not only knows how to adjust in-game to what an offense is doing, but his scheme also forces offenses to adjust to the defense.
For too many recent seasons, the Seahawks have let opponents dictate the pace of play. This was partly due to the defense sitting back and reacting instead of being proactive. 12s will see an immediate difference with Macdonald's teams. That could be enough to get Seattle back into the playoffs this year.
Seahawks traded for Sam Howell
For intents and purposes, Seattle traded a third-round draft pick for Sam Howell. The move gave Seattle a lot of options for the future. The quarterback is not expected to compete immediately for the starting job in Seattle, but he is only 23 years old, and he has a full season of starting experience in the league. Since he was only a fifth-round draft pick in 2022, he will only get paid around a million dollars in each of the next two seasons.
That alone gives Seattle more cap flexibility than had the team tried to bring back 2023 backup Drew Lock (who signed with the New York Giants for $5 million) or drafted a quarterback in the second round. The 2024 NFL draft was top-heavy as far as quality of quarterbacks and Seattle was in no position to be able to draft one of them. The second-round pick would have been more about desperation.
Should something happen and Howell is forced into getting a lot of snaps this year and he does well, he could easily be the starter in 2025. Since he is still so young, Seattle might have found their quarterback of the future for what was basically a third-round draft choice.