Sam Darnold signing earns Seahawks rare media accolade in free agency

The reviews are in - and most NFL analysts don't seem to like what the Seattle Seahawks have been up to the last couple of weeks. To recap, even though they reportedly didn't plan on it, Seattle traded both starting quarterback Geno Smith and star wide receiver DK Metcalf after cutting long-time veteran Tyler Lockett. That effectively blew up their entire passing game with the one exception of their new number one wideout, Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

Along the way the Seahawks picked up a ton of salary cap space as well as two new top-100 picks for the 2025 NFL draft, but the media mostly seem fixated on a perceived downgrade at quarterback, insisting that Geno Smith was a better option than Sam Darnold, who's replaced him as QB1.

We love the move and strongly disagree with that take. There are also at least a few voices out there who like the Darnold acquisition. According to Gary Davenport at Bleacher Report, signing Darnold is the smartest move Seattle has made yet this year. Even that accolade comes with an asterisk, though.

"This one comes with an asterisk. There’s a caveat as to why signing Sam Darnold to a three-year, $100.5 million contract became the Seahawks' best course of action as soon as they traded Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders. Seattle first traded Smith and wide receiver DK Metcalf, ostensibly for financial reasons. Then the Seahawks turned around and signed Darnold and veteran wideout Cooper Kupp, because who doesn’t love treading water?"

Our feeling is that the Darnold takes are problem of misperception. For one thing, analysts are allowing their early impressions of Darnold with the Jets to overshadow his recent growth too much. It's fair and accurate to call Darnold the worst starter in the league during his first three years, but it's also accurate to say he took a huge leap forward and was playing at a top-five level for Minnesota most of last season. Another problem is recency bias. Darnold's last two starts with the Vikings (including his first career playoff game) didn't go well, so he's also having that recent poor impression work against him.

You can claim that Darnold had a better offensive line, a better playcaller, and a better wide receiver corps than he'll have in Seattle. You can't argue that Darnold wasn't a significtly better QB than Geno Smith in 2024, though. You also definitely can't make the case that Darnold's contract (which includes an easy out after one season if he bombs) isn't preferable to paying Geno Smith what could have been a three-year deal that averaged nearly $50 million per year.

Instead, they're paying Darnold an average of just $33 million per year and the fully guaranteed portion is gone after 2025. Throw in the extra second and third-round draft picks and the fact that Cooper Kupp is really not that big of a downgrade from DK Metcalf (and literally half the price) and we really can't understand how anyone can claim that the Seahawks are not better off today than they were when March began.

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