Rost: Is Geno trade the sign Seahawks are rebuilding? Maybe not

With all due respect, what are the Seattle Seahawks doing?

Reports: Seahawks to trade Geno Smith to Pete Carroll’s Raiders

They’re not a team that tanks. Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider were constantly working to find a version of the team that brought Seattle its first Lombardi Trophy. After trading away Michael Bennett and releasing Richard Sherman in early 2018 Schneider insisted that, no, this was not a rebuild. After trading away their franchise star Russell Wilson — a move widely panned at the time — and parting ways with Bobby Wagner, Schneider insisted the same.

Why, then, trade away a quarterback who gave them their best chance to win in 2025?

That’s not to say Smith is the best quarterback, or even a long-term answer. But again, this is a team that always wants to win. Smith put up respectable numbers behind a deeply flawed interior offensive line on an offense that ranked 28th in rushing yards per game. It’s a thin quarterback group — both in free agency and in the draft — and this, presumably, was not going to be an offseason where the Seahawks sought after their next star.

Despite Smith’s age and impending contract negotiations, the Seahawks seemed pretty confident about him. When John Schneider was asked just six days ago whether there was any doubt Smith was the guy for 2025, he answered “no,” adding “I don’t foresee him not being with us.”

Well, he is very much not with them.

In a Friday news dump move that shocked the rest of the NFL, the Seahawks sent Smith to the Raiders for a third-round pick.

The move makes sense for Vegas. Carroll, the former Seahawks head coach who is entering his first season leading the Raiders, has always been fond of Smith. And this answers the Raiders’ biggest question and gives some hope to a team rebuilding.

But following the release of Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf’s trade request… is that what the Seahawks are doing too? Rebuilding?

Honestly, I don’t think they are.

Wyman and Bob react to ‘shocking’ Geno Smith trade

This team making a few more trades and starting Sam Howell at quarterback would be in full rebuild mode. But it doesn’t appear to be Schneider’s plan. At least not if the reports that they’re pursuing 2024 Pro Bowl QB Sam Darnold are true. Darnold is younger than Smith and had a better 2024 season, but those numbers were all career highs and he’ll still be looking to get paid a hefty sum.

Perhaps this is Schneider shaking things up. That, I’d argue, is a fair enough excuse for some Seahawks fans. Seattle’s constant efforts to contend have led to some draft success, some draft failure, midseason trade wins and free agent flops. In other words, entering 2025, the Seahawks had kind of stayed the same: hovering above bad, but below true contention by virtue of feeling a little “good enough” everywhere.

The Seahawks have the eighth-most wins by any team over the last decade, and yet (credit to Seattle Sports’ Curtis Rogers for pointing this out) only the Cowboys and Bears have longer NFC title game droughts.

A byproduct of being quite-consistently-just-good-enough is the lack of high-round draft capital. You’re not winning championships, but you’re not hitting on elite prospects either. And the top of the draft is where the quarterbacks of most of last year’s playoff teams were found. Nine of this year’s teams featured starting quarterbacks who were top-10 picks (interesting twist: several NFC teams didn’t draft their starter). Just two had starters who weren’t selected in the first round at all (Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts and Pittsburgh’s Russell Wilson).

But signing a high-priced free agent quarterback (even if he was once a top-five pick) isn’t what you’d expect a rebuilding team to do. If what you want is a bridge quarterback, you had one. If Darnold is the answer, his 35 touchdowns in ’24 are promising, but he won’t be bringing Justin Jefferson, an O-line, and Kevin O’Connell with him from Minnesota.

Maybe Smith was asking for the moon in a contract extension. Maybe Schneider genuinely believes Darnold is an upgrade. Maybe he’ll throw a ton of resources into the offensive line and run game and get it right this time around. And maybe it’ll all work.

But there’s only one thing Schneider is certainly doing, and that’s betting on himself.

Seattle Seahawks news and analysis

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• Seahawks Draft: Potential early-round WR targets to replace DK
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• Schneider details where Seattle Seahawks are on DK trade talks

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