People could be forgiven for doom-scrolling these days. It’s difficult to wake up on any given day and not be traumatized by something that has happened in the news. Seattle Seahawks fans probably deserve some grace over the past five days for being afraid to look at breaking news alerts on their phones.
On Thursday, the team announced that it was releasing legendary wide receiver Tyler Lockett. That same day, No. 1 wide receiver DK Metcalf requested a trade. On Friday evening, the team shipped out starting quarterback to the Las Vegas Raiders for a third-round draft pick. On Sunday morning, the team traded Metcalf to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a second-round pick. On Monday, the team found its replacement quarterback, signing Sam Darnold to a three-year, $100.5 million contract.
That’s a busy off-season for any team, much less a weekend.
The flurry of trades sets the team up for its most consequential offseason in the past decade and puts the weight on general manager John Schneider and second-year coach Mike Macdonald to reshape the team.
In reality, the events of the weekend should be deja vu to Schneider and Seahawks fans. In 2010, in Schneider’s first year on the job alongside coach Pete Carroll, the team was largely comprised of holdovers from the previous regime and midseason acquisitions. They famously made the playoffs with a 7-9 record and beat the New Orleans Saints in the “Beastquake” game. The following off-season, the team went into full rebuild mode, with Carroll and Schneider tearing down the roster and rebuilding it. The following season, the Seahawks went 7-9 again. The year after that, they won the Super Bowl.
This past season, Macdonald got a team largely comprised of Pete Carrol holdovers and midseason additions to a 10-7 record, falling just short of the playoffs. After evaluating how all the pieces fit together under Macdonald, Schneider is again going into a complete rebuild. After just a year, the team already swapped offensive coordinators, tossing aside Ryan Grubb and a pass-heavy attack for Klint Kubiak. The New Orleans Saints import may be in shock this week, having seen a perennial 1,000-yard receiver and the franchise single-season passing yards record holder vanish in a single weekend.
While the team was busy shedding many of its primary offensive weapons, the players they made moves to retain speak volumes about what Macdonald wants to develop. Over the same weekend that Schneider was bringing in draft picks for the team’s offensive talent, he was resigning stalwart defensive tackle Jarran Reed and midseason linebacker addition Ernest Jones. Even though he only appeared in ten games for the team, Jones ranked third in tackles and helped dramatically improve the run defense in the second half of the season. Clearly, Schneider and Macdonald believe in the defensive core the team has constructed and see the offense as something in need of dramatic reshaping.
And dramatically reshape the offense they have. Darnold comes in off a career-best season for the Minnesota Vikings last season, albeit one where his flaws were exposed by the end of it. However, he’s seven years younger than Smith, will cost roughly the same amount of money, and allows the team to add a third-round draft pick in the process. Signing Darnold also means the Seahawks don’t have to worry about grabbing a quarterback in next month’s draft. The team has other needs on offense to address, particularly the offensive line, which has been an issue for years, and now there are some gaping holes at wide receiver.
Like the start of the Pete Carroll era, the Seahawks have been attempting to get by by shoving square pegs into round holes and hoping for the best. They’ve seen where the ceiling for that approach is and decided that things need to change. Interestingly enough, the last time the Seahawks went through a full franchise reset, they also made a big splash in acquiring a new quarterback when they brought in Matt Flynn from the Green Bay Packers in a big deal. Flynn would never start a game for the Seahawks after a third-round rookie named Russell Wilson grabbed the starting job in training camp.
That would be one of several picks Schneider would hit out of the park in the next few drafts in the process of building a team that would win the franchise’s only Super Bowl to date.
Seahawks fans can only hope that his second attempt to reshape the franchise will be as successful as the first.
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