Mike Macdonald Details How Seattle Seahawks QB Room Will Operate This Offseason

The Seattle Seahawks have Geno Smith and Sam Howell as their quarterbacks with Mike Macdonald detailing how he expects the room to function.

The Seattle Seahawks will be fascinating to watch this season, not only because it's Mike Macdonald's first head coaching role as he takes over from Pete Carroll but also because of the team quarterback situation.

Geno Smith has been the starter for the last two seasons as he made the Pro Bowl while guiding the Seahawks to the playoffs in the first year post-Russell Wilson. But this past season, Geno couldn't live up to his 2022 efforts, and Seattle missed the playoffs, despite being 6-3 at one stage in the year.

Now, the Seahawks saw backup Drew Lock leave for the New York Giants in free agency and then traded for Washington Commanders quarterback Sam Howell. Some think the move was made to push Geno to better heights in 2024 and if that can't be achieved, with the Seahawks able to save a significant amount of cap space next offseason by offloading Smith, Howell could be seen as his replacement.

But how does Macdonald see the dynamic between Smith and Howell working this offseason?

Mike Macdonald

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"Like a numbers split on snaps, I don’t know," Macdonald said. "But it’s going to be your conventional – we’ll see what Ryan thinks and what’s the right split. But yeah, Geno’s going to go into camp, he’s the starter. Really excited about that, but then obviously Sam needs a lot of reps too as well as if there’s a third quarterback on the roster. Those guys have got to develop as well. So we’ll figure out the right mix. Again, everybody on the team, we might not be competing for one and two, but those guys are going to be getting after it every day to develop and bring the team along and compete with themselves to try to make them the best player they can be, so that’s what we expect."

Geno as the starter makes sense as he is the best option the Seahawks have, and he has shown he can operate the offense to a high level.

Now with a new voice in his ear with Ryan Grubb who likes to air out the football, Smith could be set for a bounce-back year, and he has the weapons on offense to make some serious noise.

D.K. Metcalf, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Tyler Lockett headline the weapons, but with tight end Noah Fant and running backs Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet, Seattle boasts a deep offensive attack.

It is all about bringing it together in Grubb's vision, and Smith has the experience to do just that. As Macdonald stated, Geno will be the starter in camp, and the team will see where it goes from there.

But it doesn't feel like Smith has two firm hands on the starting position and that the leash could be quite short. Time will tell but in Howell, the Seahawks hope they have a backup who will push Geno to even better performances in 2024 and lead the team back to the playoffs.

If not, then an interesting decision might await next offseason.