Getty Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll could be interested in acquiring a Super Bowl champion quarterback.
The Seattle Seahawks ultimately decided not to make a move for former Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield. However, that doesn’t mean that general manager John Schneider is done looking for a starting-caliber quarterback.
With Mayfield off the table, one of the last remaining quarterbacks available is San Francisco 49ers star Jimmy Garoppolo. When discussing potential landing spots for Jimmy G, Adam Wells of Bleacher Report listed the Seahawks as his top potential landing spot.
“Garoppolo may not be a viable trade option for Seattle since the 49ers might not want to give a division rival a starting quarterback,” Wells wrote on July 6. “But given how few teams seem to be looking for a starter at this point, San Francisco could eventually have to outright release Garoppolo. … Waiving him would be better than holding on to him through the 2022 season because of the cap implications.”
Mayfield was officially traded to the Carolina Panthers on July 6, with the Browns receiving a conditional 2024 fifth-round pick and agreeing to pay a portion of the former first overall pick’s 2022 salary.
Latest Buzz Surrounding Jimmy Garoppolo
Since going 5-0 as a starter in 2017 and 13-3 en route to the Super Bowl in 2019, Garoppolo and his relationship with the 49ers have been complicated, and now the two sides are working together to help find the 30-year-old a new home.
The situation in San Francisco became difficult for Garoppolo when the 49ers selected quarterback Trey Lance with the third overall pick in the 2021 draft. Garoppolo held onto the starting job throughout last season, guiding the team to a 9-6 record in his starts. The 49ers made it as far as the NFC Championship game, but his struggles in the postseason showed up once again. In six career playoff starts for the 49ers, Garoppolo has posted a passer rating of just 74.1, throwing four touchdowns and six interceptions.
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It seems both Garoppolo and the team view a fresh start for him as a mutually beneficial decision, but the trade market for Garoppolo has been quiet as the veteran QB rehabs from offseason shoulder surgery. With Garoppolo’s status unclear, and his cap hit set at nearly $27 million for the final year of his contract, teams don’t seem super eager to give up assets for a player who may not stay with a new team long term.
Despite currently playing for a divisional rival, the Seahawks are tied with the Detroit Lions for the third-best odds to be Garoppolo’s next team, according to a June 14 Sports Geek story. Those odds could be factoring in a potential release for Jimmy G, but a team like the Houston Texans (favored at +150) or Lions could try to make an aggressive trade offer.
What Will the Seahawks Do at QB?
The list of teams in need of a starting-caliber quarterback is shrinking, with the Seahawks being one of the last few remaining teams potentially in the trade market for a player like Garoppolo.
However, head coach Pete Carroll has been pretty public on his thoughts about the team’s quarterback position. After the draft, Carroll said in a radio interview that he didn’t expect the team to make a trade for a quarterback this offseason.
Carroll has also been publicly supportive of the team’s newest quarterback, Drew Lock, who was acquired in the trade that sent Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos. Carroll even said that he felt Lock would have been the best QB in the 2022 draft class.
That doesn’t guarantee that Lock will be the starter, however. The former Missouri Tigers gunslinger will be battling it out in training camp and the preseason against Geno Smith, who has been with the team since 2019 as Wilson’s backup. Smith stepped up admirably last season while Wilson was sidelined with a finger injury, posting an impressive 103.0 passer rating.
There’s plenty of time for the Seahawks to make another move at quarterback, but with Mayfield now in Carolina and Garoppolo being a big question mark, Lock and Smith could be the two players that Seattle roles with under center in 2022.