The Seattle Seahawks are looking for cheap help, it seems. After trading the potentially expensive quarterback Geno Smith and wide receiver DK Metcalf, the team signed one-year wonder quarterback Sam Darnold and, as of Wednesday, have signed wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Compared to Smith, Darnold is going to cost Seattle about $10-15 million less per season over the next three years. Smith was only signed for one more season but wanted an extension for $40-45 million a season. Darnold will only cost the Seahawks as much as $33 million on average per year.
If one needed more proof of the tight purse strings of the Seahawks, look no further than the signing of Valdes-Scantling. While Metcalf, who is 6'4" and 230 pounds, MVS is 6'4" and 210 pounds. The height is the same, and the speed is not far off, but the strength and ability to beat defenders for 50/50 balls is not. Metcalf is by far the better receiver and always has been.
Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider needs to look firmly in the mirror
In fact, MVS only has a career catch-rate of 49.5. That is not good for a professional receiver. He will also be on his fifth team in eight seasons at the start of 2025. That means, while his career yards per catch is a very good 17.4, that he hasn't done enough to prove to any team that he is worthy of keeping around for many years.
Except for 2021, when he played in 11 games, MVS has stayed relatively healthy, too. That might be seen as a positive, but not in the case of Valdes-Scantling. The number of games he has been available for and not been extremely productive only reinforces the fact that he is extremely inconsistent. His career-high in receiving yards in a season is only 690 yards.
Does Schneider see MVS as the kind of receiver who will somehow greatly increase in production suddenly? Why? Valdes-Scantling hasn't shown the capability to do that. Instead, his signing price of one year and up to $5.5 million seems just along Schneider's lines.
Were the Seahawks very good for a decade from 2010 through most of the late 2010s? Yep. But the team has not truly been a real player as far as being a contender for a few years now. Relying on the same tendencies that worked in the 2010s and still thinking that works when recent history proves it does is a mistake.
Schneider and the Seahawks need to be a lot more aggressive in free agency to fix areas of need. By far, Seattle's biggest need after the 2024 season was to fix the offensive line. All Schneider has done so far is add backup Josh Jones. Starting left guard Laken Tomlinson left in free agency, and while Tomlinson was not great in 2024, he would still be better than anyone else Seattle currently has entering next season.
Instead of looking at the cheapest routes, after making so much cap room this offseason, Schneider needed to go out and bid on good interior offensive linemen. Most of the players have now been signed, and Seattle's offensive line looks even worse. At some point, Schneider needs to change his free agency ways, or he needs to be fired.
Update: Seattle recently signed edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence to a three-year deal worth as much as $42 million, but the mystery remains why Schneider will not spend much to fix the offensive line.