Schneider on if Sam Howell impacts Seahawks in the NFL Draft
Mar 22, 2024, 4:00 PM | Updated: Mar 27, 2024, 1:14 pm
There was speculation the Seattle Seahawks would potentially pick a quarterback early in this year’s NFL Draft. But a recent move suggests otherwise.
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Last week, Seattle made a notable trade with the Washington Commanders, acquiring quarterback Sam Howell. Howell, a 2022 fourth-round draft pick, started all 17 games for Washington last season.
Seattle Seahawks general manager and president of football operations John Schneider said after the move was made that Geno Smith is still the starting quarterback and Howell will be his backup. But how does trading for Howell impact next month’s draft? That’s a question Bob Stelton had for Schneider during this week’s John Schneider Show on Seattle Sports.
“Does that change the urgency – if there was urgency – to get a quarterback in this draft? Because this is supposed to be a deep quarterback draft (this year) and next year, according to the analyst,s is not great,” Stelton said. “So I don’t know if you felt, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get a guy this year.’ Does that acquisition change your approach to the draft at all in terms of quarterbacks?”
Replied Schneider, “No, not necessarily.”
Things changed for the Seahawks on the quarterback front, Schneider said, after the NFL combine concluded and free agency kicked off.
“I will say post-combine, the first negotiating window weekend when Drew (Lock) went to the Giants, yeah, there was a level of OK, now this (prospect) threw the ball great (at the combine), that guy threw the ball great and OK, that team needs a quarterback, that team needs a quarterback, that team doesn’t have a quarterback, we need a backup quarterback, we need to get on this thing,” he said. “And we got on it and hung in there and we were one of four teams that was in it (for Howell).”
“And I’ll tell you what, later on that night I was really, really blessed and relieved after getting calls from other clubs that were kind of like, ‘How’d that happen?'” Schneider later said.
Schneider joins Wyman and Bob on Seattle Sports every Thursday of the offseason leading up to the NFL Draft. Listen to the entirety of this week’s episode at this link or in the player near the top of this story, or watch the interview in the video player at the top of this story.
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