The Seahawks are getting calls to possibly trade Sam Howell.
But they may keep him.
Even with the new, $100.5 million contract they have given Sam Darnold to replace traded Geno Smith as their new starter.
Even with Drew Lock now signed back to the team.
And none of this — having three current and former league starters on the roster — is affecting Seattle’s plans about quarterbacks in the NFL draft that begins Thursday.
General manager John Schneider said that, and a bit more, Monday about the sport’s most important position three days before the Seahawks’ turn to pick at 18th in the first round.
“We have three quarterbacks who have thrown for over 3,000 yards in a season,” Schneider said, sitting to coach Mike Macdonald’s left in the main meeting room of team and draft headquarters. “All of them can move.
“That’s a pretty cool group, getting Drew back here.”
It’s actually four quarterbacks on the 90-man offseason roster. There’s also Jaren Hall, a 27-year-old from BYU who started two games in 2023 for the Minnesota Vikings.
That’s why, yes, teams are calling Schneider about possibly trading for Howell.
“Yeah, that’s accurate,” the GM said.
“We have a great relationship with Bruce (Tollner), his agent. Bruce is very well-known and respected throughout the National Football League, so he has a ton of contacts, as well.
“So it’s a very open dialogue.”
Asked if that’s something he would be open to, trading Howell a year after trading for him, Schneider said: “I don’t know. We’re not there yet.”
Darnold, 27, signed a three-year contract last month. Seattle could get out of it relatively easily after two seasons, following 2026. Darnold threw for 4,300 yards with 35 touchdowns while leading the Vikings to a 14-3 record. It was the best season by far of his career.
Darnold signed days after the Seahawks ended their contract impasse with Smith by trading their three-year starter and two-time Pro Bowl QB to the Las Vegas Raiders. It reunites Smith with Pete Carroll, his former Seattle coach.
Lock, 28, signed a two-year deal worth $5 million with the Seahawks last week. The length of his deal is notable. It’s one year longer than the 24-year-old Howell has left with Seattle. That’s on Howell’s rookie deal the team inherited from Washington in a trade last year.
Howell was alarmingly inaccurate during training camp last summer. He was overwhelmed by and ineffective against the Green Bay Packers replacing the injured Smith in December.
Howell held onto the ball too long that night. He hesitated while completing just five of 14 passes for 24 yards in Seattle’s home loss. It helped eliminate the team from the postseason for the second consecutive year.
He got sacked four times that night against the Packers. He often held onto the ball well past 3 seconds, as if he thought the Seahawks had the best offensive line in football, not one of the NFL’s worst. He scrambled once.
So that was 19 drop-backs with just five completions. That has happened only 20 times in the last 25 NFL seasons, ESPN analyst Benjamin Solak reported.
That plus Lock’s contract being longer than his make it appear Howell is on his way out.
Or is he?
Macdonald was asked Monday what Seattle signing back Lock means for Howell’s future with the Seahawks.
“Well, it means that those guys are going to be competing,” the coach said. “Both guys know that.
And Jaren’s part of the mix, too. He’s going to be competing with those guys.
“But anytime you’re adding competition to a room and a side of the ball and football team to enforce, especially when they’re great players and great guys, it’s gonna be fun to see how it shakes out.”
The News Tribune asked Schneider Monday if his team would be willing to do something it has rarely done in his 15 years as Seattle’s GM and roster constructor: Carry three quarterbacks on the 53-man active roster all season.
“Yeah,” Schneider said, flatly.
Drafting a quarterback?
Schneider mentioned it yet again Monday: He’s still drafted just two quarterbacks in his 15 years as Seahawks GM.
Russell Wilson in the third round in 2012 and Alex McGough in the seventh round in 2018 remain the answers to a long-standing Seahawks trivia question at the game’s most vital position.
Will it stay two QB drafted in 16 years when the 2025 draft ends Saturday with rounds four through seven?
The TNT’s Seahawks seven-round mock draft says no. We have Schneider and Seattle selecting strong, running-and-throwing Jalen Milroe from Alabama in the second round Friday.
The Seahawks have the 50th- and 52nd-overall picks in round two, part of their five choices in the first 92 of this draft.
“It’s fun,” the GM who has made 38 trades involving picks in his 15 previous Seahawks drafts.
“It’s a lot of room for activity.”
The TNT asked Schneider if signing back Lock on top of Darnold on top of having Howell under contract for 2025 affects Seattle’s approach to QBs in this draft.
“No,” Schneider said.
“I was talking about the other day: It’s hard to maneuver around with quarterbacks, to call it a ‘safe place’ where you are in an ideal world of acquiring quarterbacks.”
He turned to his right to Macdonald. The coach nodded his head in concurrence.
“We’ve talked about before: We’ve only drafted two,” Schneider said.
Schneider said he and his team has to have a limit to “how far you can push” possibly lower-quality quarterbacks up the Seahawks’ draft board because of the importance of the position.
So far, the GM has resisted doing that.
Lock remains popular in the Seahawks’ facility for how he dealt with Carroll handing Smith the starting job over him in what really wasn’t a true competition in the training camp of 2022. That was months after the team traded Wilson to Denver.
Lock is also popular among Seahawks teammates who were on the team in 2023, pre-Macdonald. Late that season, with the team on its way to missing the playoffs, Lock replaced the injured Smith and rallied the team to an upset home win over the Philadelphia Eagles. Lock led a late 2-minute drive, then ended it with a touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the final seconds.
The Seahawks let Lock leave in free agency following the 2023 season. He signed a one-year, $5 million contract with the New York Giants.
He went 1-3 in four starts for a three-win team. He lit up the Colts in New York’s win at Indianapolis in the final weeks of last season.
The Giants then signed Wilson this offseason. They let Lock leave after his contract with them expired.
“Drew’s very well respected in the building,” Schneider said of Smith’s backup in the Seahawks’ 2022 and ‘23 seasons. “So it’s great to get him back here into the mix.
“He had other opportunities. We stayed in touch with his agent.”
Schneider and Macdonald said it also helped that the coach spent time with Lock talking about life as well as football during the league’s owners meetings in Florida late last month.
“He’s a great person, great competitor to add to this building.”
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