Texas Longhorns quarter backs Arch Manning and Quinn Ewers throws the football during Texas Longhorns football spring practice at the Frank Denius practice fields in Austin Wednesday, March 8, 2023. Quarterbacks Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK

2025 NFL draft: Seahawks predicted to roll dice on divisive QB prospect in Round 3

Originally posted on Seattle Seahawks on SI
By Tim Weaver | Last updated Apr 5, 2025 12:00 PM ET

The Seattle Seahawks have their starting quarterback set for the 2025 season with Sam Darnold. Even though his reported three-year, $100 million deal is much closer to a two-year deal with $55 million guaranteed Darnold is at the top of the quarteback depth chart and has no real competition for the starting role at the moment.

So, that's one reason why the Seahawks are widely expected to use a draft pick on a quarterback relatively early for the first time since they picked Russell Wilson in Round 3 back in 2012. According to one mock draft, Seattle will try to find another potential long-term QB in the third round this year, as well.

Pro Football Network's seven-round mock has the Seahawks selecting Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers with the No. 92 overall pick in the draft they got from the Raiders in the Geno Smith trade.

"Ewers is one of a small group of quarterbacks likely to be taken on Day 2 of April’s draft. While Seattle just signed Darnold to a multi-year deal, that deal could easily be cut short if things don’t work out. One promising season under Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota hasn’t been enough for people to forget his past struggles. Ewers would enter the 2025 season as Darnold’s backup but could quickly get an opportunity to impress if Darnold reverts to his old ways."

It's possible that Ewers could enter the 2025 season as Darnold's primary backup, but first he'd have to get past Sam Howell, who has three years of experience in the NFL, including a full season as a starter. There's no guarantee Ewers would beat out Howell in the QB2 competition, and many analysts consider his game too raw to even consider playing him as a rookie.

Ewers is a pretty polarizing prospect, though - and many others do believe in his ability enough to think he could thrive at the next level. His game certainly has its strengths, including a quick release and enough arm power to complete long balls. The scouting report on Ewers also mentions plus touch, timing and multiple arm angles. On the downside he's not very mobile and his vision tends to crash and burn when under pressure.

That would obviously be a pretty big problem with the Seahawks, who probably have the worst offensive line in the NFL right now after the Patriots upgraded their unit in free agency with Garrett Bradbury and Morgan Moses.

Then again, it's going to take more than one offseason for Seattle to fix that line - especially since they didn't really bother to address it last month. Ewers has time to develop and ideally by the time he's polished enough to start the Seahawks would be able to protect him at a non-joke level.

This article first appeared on Seattle Seahawks on SI and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: