Seahawks’ Potential ‘Sneaky’ Move Could Spell Trouble for QB Geno Smith

Getty The Seahawks could consider replacing Geno Smith with a rookie quarterback.

Anything can happen on any given Sunday. Just as game day is a crap shoot, so goes the NFL draft.

Mock experts and enthusiasts have been throwing darts at the draft prediction board since even before February’s Super Bowl in millions of attempts to get a few to stick.

CBS Sports staff writer Cody Benjamin opined that the Seattle Seahawks could make a move no one is expecting. “Seattle could be a sneaky candidate to move up or even sit tight and use this pick on a Geno Smith successor at quarterback,” he wrote on April 14, “but with no second-rounder in their possession, they could stand to field calls about a bump down the order.”

Seattle finds itself without a second thanks to a shot sank right before the buzzer. With just hours remaining before the NFL trade deadline, the Seahawks made a move sending the New York Giants this year’s second-round pick and a 2025 fifth-round pick in exchange for Pro Bowl defensive tackle Leonard Williams.

Will the Seahawks Use Draft Pick No. 16 on a Quarterback?

Had the draft happened in February, quarterback would’ve been higher on the list. But since then, things have changed and chances are extremely slim that anything will actually come of Benjamin’s quarterback hunch.

The Seahawks traded for Sam Howell for a reason: To afford themselves some much-needed flexibility and not have to spend a top pick on a signal-caller. It’s a ho-hum class quarterback class and with Geno Smith at the helm, they aren’t at the point of desperation.

While Seattle needs offensive help, it’s more in the form of an offensive lineman — whether that’s a tackle, center or guard.

Three NFL Network analysts — Daniel Jeremiah, Bucky Brooks and Peter Schrager — all see the Seahawks taking Washington tackle Troy Fautanu. Lance Zeirlein zigged with jack-of-all-trades lineman Graham Barton and Charles Davis likes Fautanu’s teammate, quarterback Michael Penix Jr.

The latest projections from USA Today have Penix going somewhere in the second round. Though it doesn’t always forecast what happens, the Seahawks never met with Penix at the NFL Scouting Combine or brought him in for a top-30 visit.

According to Seahawks Wire’s top-30 visits predraft tracker, field generals who did meet with Seattle are Oregon’s Bo Nix, South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler, LSU’s Jayden Daniels, UNC’s Drake Maye and UCF’s John Rhys Plumlee.

Trading for Howell and having Smith under contract doesn’t necessarily preclude Seattle from taking a flyer on a QB somewhere on day two or three. They will need to address the depth issue behind Howell before heading into training camp.

Per Over the Cap, Smith has a $10 million roster bonus due in March 2025, bringing his cap number to $38.5 million—nearly 15 percent of the team’s projected cap number. The team could want to move on from the veteran, who will turn 34 in October.

ESPN Predicts Seahawks to Trade Down in NFL Draft

If anything that Cody Benjamin predicted comes to fruition, it’s more in the latter half. Since the Seattle Seahawks don’t currently own a second-round pick, recouping that by trading down with an interested opponent could be the route to take—one that the team is known for.

General manager Johnson Schneider has a penchant for trading back. Armed with 14 first-round picks 14 previous drafts, his Seahawks have done so with six of those selections. ESPN sees history repeating itself on April 25.

“Their rationale has been that if a given draft has only roughly 15-20 players to whom they’ve assigned a first-round grade, then they’re usually left with second-round talents by the time they pick in the mid-20s,” wrote Brady Henderson. “And, their thinking goes, if there isn’t much of a dropoff between a player they could take at 35 compared to 25, they may as well move back and pick up an additional selection along the way.”