Huard: How Drew Lock impacts Seahawks’ timeline to add Baker Mayfield

The Seahawks currently have a two-man race for the starting quarterback job with Drew Lock and Geno Smith on the roster. But could a third party shake things up?

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The most obvious potential addition the Seahawks could make at quarterback is Baker Mayfield, the 2018 No. 1 overall pick who is looking for a new team as the Cleveland Browns have replaced him with Deshaun Watson.

Currently, Seattle is in the midst of organized team activities (OTAs) and have a few other practice dates scheduled prior to the start of training camp. So how long could they wait to make a decision on Mayfield?

Former NFL quarterback Brock Huard joined Seattle Sports 710 AM’s Mike Salk Show Thursday morning and said the timing for Mayfield is dependent largely on the Seahawks getting a good look at Lock, who is entering his fourth season, over the next month or so.

“I think that this season, this offseason, this draft was a reset to 2010,” Huard said.

Not only did the Seahawks make a ridiculous number of transactions during that offseason, which was the first for coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider, but that was the beginning of the team’s early and continual evaluation process for players to see if they were fits for Seattle.

“I believe they will continue to compete and get back to some of those roots,” Huard said. “And that means these OTAs are Drew and Geno’s to get a good evaluation. What does Pete always say? To get the information (and) to learn the learners. That’s what they’re doing right now over the next month with Drew Lock.”

Huard said the Seahawks know Smith “inside and out” and “know what he is and what he isn’t” as he’s been in Seattle since 2019. That’s not the case with Lock.

“With Drew, they’re figuring that out over the next three to four weeks,” Huard said. “Thus I don’t think you bring Baker Mayfield in over this learning period. I think that just sets you back further. But use this as a period of discovery, and then if Baker is sitting there in late July and into training camp, you can make a decision (on Mayfield) with a whole lot more intel of what this offseason looks like.”

Related: Next phase of Hawks offseason most important for Drew Lock

The Seahawks have seven days left of OTA workouts, including Friday. Next up after that is a three-day mandatory minicamp in mid-June. Training camp typically begins at the end of July, though dates have yet to be announced.

Huard said that some don’t put much stock into offseason practices, but he thinks they’re really important, especially given how the NFL schedule currently works.

“It means a lot, especially in today’s NFL with minimal training camps, minimal preseason games, minimal opportunities to impress,” Huard said. “Every one of these practices, every one of these scripts, every one of these competitive environments means something, and I think it’s awfully, awfully important for Drew Lock. If you didn’t want to see Baker Mayfield here and he wants to resurrect his career, then this next month (Lock has) to impress. He’s got to build that equity.”

“They’ve got an understanding and idea (of who Drew Lock is),” Huard added later. “They just want to see if they can incubate him in this kind of culture of positivity and build up instead of negativity and fear that he was in for three years in that old regime in Denver. I think you can still discover an awful lot. And frankly, in three weeks if he’s inaccurate and he’s sailing passes and he’s one-hopping them and we’re out there at mandatory camp and minicamp and boy, he just doesn’t look settled, then I think it’s a different conversation about Baker Mayfield, especially if the reports are true that Cleveland is going to eat a lot of that contract.”

Listen to the full second hour of Thursday’s Mike Salk Show at this link or in the player below.

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