Massive NFL free agency signing named Seahawks' most head-scratching move of 2025

The Seahawks stunned the NFL world a couple months ago when they made a series of franchise-shaking moves to the very heart of their roster. Within a period of just five days, the team cut franchise legend Tyler Lockett after 10 years, then they traded their starting quarterback Geno Smith to the Raiders and finally they dealt star wide receiver DK Metcalf to the Steelers, upending three years' worth of their offensive identity.

Since then the Seahawks have effectively managed to exchange Tory Horton for Tyler Lockett, Cooper Kupp for DK Metcalf and of course Sam Darnold for Geno Smith.

While we like it, that last move has brought on a ton of negative commentary and poor offseason grades for Seattle from the media. According to Seth Trachtman at Yardbarker, the Darnold signing is the team's most head-scratching move of the year.

Sam Darnold named Seahawks' most head-scratching move

"Darnold revived his career in Minnesota last offseason, and was rewarded with a massive three-year deal with Seattle. Seahawks fans do have reason to be nervous, as Darnold floundered down the stretch, and had the benefit of quarterback whiseperer Kevin O'Connell. The team is putting a lot on the back of Darnold, replacing the more consistent Geno Smith."

Another hard disagree from us on this take. To begin, describing Smith as consistent rings false given the turnover issues that he had throughout the last three seasons and especially in 2024. If anything Smith consistently over-aggressive and occasionally reckless with the ball.

It's better to have a QB that's too aggressive as opposed to too conservative - but with Darnold the Seahawks are striking a better balance. Darnold had the best deep ball in the NFL last season according to Next Gen Stats and he managed to post a TD/INT ratio of about 3/1. Meanwhile, during Smith's three years at the helm he was closer to 2/1. That's a huge difference.

Darnold is simply not the same quarterback he was early in his career and it's not fair to judge him by just two games coming at the end of last season. However, even if all Darnold's critics are right and he won't be able to perform at the same level as in Minnesota, the Seahawks have built themselves an escape hatch into Darnold's contract, allowing them to get out relatively easy after just one year if thins don't go well.

In that event, Seattle has a plan of succession in place. Using the No. 92 overall pick they got from the Raiders in the Geno Smith trade, they picked Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe. While he's rightfully considered a developmental quarterback, Milroe has some elite traits that will be worth developing if Darnold can't pick up where he left off.

You can argue with the details, but it wouldn't be accurate to say the Seahawks didn't know what they were doing with this sequence of events.

If we were forced to name a different head-scratching move instead of Darnold we'd probably go with the DeMarcus Lawrence sgining. While Lawrence has had an amazing career he's now in the twilight phase of it, and giving him a sizable three-year deal (worth up to $32.5 million) feels like too big of an investment for a 33 year old - especially with young guns like Boye Mafe and Derick Hall waiting in the wings for a starting spot.