The Seattle Seahawks finished one spot behind the Green Bay Packers in the NFC last offseason, leading the team to miss out on a playoff berth for a second consecutive season. In response to their lack of playoff success, it appears that the Seahawks are blowing up their offense.
Aside from an offensive coordinator change and the trade request that DK Metcalf has asked for, the Seahawks also released receiver Tyler Lockett this week. On Friday, they made the shocking move of trading their starting quarterback, Geno Smith, to the Las Vegas Raiders, where former Seattle head coach Pete Carroll is now running the show.
This impacts the Packers in a couple of ways. First of all, a borderline playoff team in the conference has seemingly called it quits, at least in the short term. Secondly, it’s going to be even harder to convince Metcalf that the Seahawks are a “contender,” the very type of team that the receiver wants to play for.
Lastly, this move could hurt the Minnesota Vikings’ offseason plans. According to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini, one reason why the Seahawks traded Smith is that they’re interested in signing Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold, which is expected to drive up Darnold’s price in free agency. If Minnesota cannot secure a long-term deal for Darnold, then they’ll have to start 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy, who missed his entire rookie season after suffering a preseason knee injury that required several surgeries. The franchise tag deadline has already passed, so the franchise tag is not on the table for the Vikings.
All in all, this seems like great news for the Packers. At the very least, the Vikings should have to pay more for their preferred 2025 quarterback. At best, two NFC teams whose combined record was 24-10 in 2024 will get worse with the changes to the quarterback market and we took a step toward Metcalf wearing green and gold.