Matt Calkins: Seahawks made right calls on Sam Darnold, Geno Smith, Pete Carroll

Matt Calkins, The Seattle Times on Oct 7, 2025

Published in Football

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SEATTLE — The result of Sunday's game might haunt the Seahawks, but the performance shouldn't worry them.

Yes, the Bucs dissected their defense in a 38-35 win, but we've seen what that side of the ball is capable of when healthy. Seattle's defense looks good overall. Its offense looks even better. But you know who else deserves an "A" grade for their work? The folks upstairs.

It's obviously too early to tag anyone in the Seahawks front office with the "genius" label. The Seahawks are 3-2 and haven't won a playoff game since the 2019 season.

However, when you look at the pieces they've brought in, and just as relevant — the pieces they've let go of — the brass looks a little more savvy with each passing week.

Most of this is general manager John Schneider's work. One move goes beyond his pay grade.

A look at some of the key transactions over the past couple of years:

Letting go of Geno Smith

It's only five games in, but Smith very well could be having the worst season of his career. The Raiders quarterback has thrown six touchdowns against nine interceptions while posting a passer rating of 75.6 and a QBR of 38.5 — which ranks 28th in the NFL.

Smith reached the Pro Bowl in two of his three seasons as a starter with the Seahawks and threw for a career-high 4,320 yards last season. But Schneider was unwilling to pay him the kind of money he wanted in a contract extension, so they parted ways.

The separation seemed questionable at the time. Now it looks prescient. Throw in the Russell Wilson trade three years earlier, and Schneider appears to be 2 for 2 when it comes to unloading past-their-prime signal callers.

Signing Sam Darnold

Some might say this was a no-brainer given Smith's departure, but two things were still in play. A) Schneider had to sell Darnold on coming to Seattle, and B) He had to trust that the Vikings version of Sam was who the Seahawks would get. Well, through five games, Pro Football Focus says Darnold is the top quarterback in the NFL. His 114.8 passer rating is third, which checks out when you consider he's completed 73.1% of his passes for 1,246 yards and a league-high 9.3 yards per throw.

Darnold didn't come cheap — his contract is worth $100.5 million over three years with $55 million guaranteed. That's not superstar money, though. He's providing superstar-level production through five games.

Trading DK Metcalf

This is not a Geno Smith situation. Metcalf's stats might not pop like those for some of the NFL's top wideouts (he is 39th in receiving yards and tied for 12th in touchdown catches), but PFF gives him the fifth-highest grade among receivers. However, he likely wouldn't be worth the five-year, $150 million deal the Steelers signed him to after Schneider traded him. If you haven't noticed, the Seahawks' passing game is rolling.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba is second in the NFL in receiving yards with 534, which is 85 yards north of third-place Justin Jefferson. Seattle is fifth in the NFL in passing yards per game. Last season, even with DK on the roster and Smith having a career year, the Seahawks were eighth. The additions of fellow pass catchers Cooper Kupp and Tory Horton have made the Metcalf trade look more than justified.

Parting ways with Pete Carroll

This is the one above Schneider's pay grade. Carroll is the most successful coach in Seahawks history, bringing the franchise its only Super Bowl victory. He might be the most beloved coach in Seattle sports history despite a second consecutive Lombardi Trophy sneaking away. But it was time to move on. Defense was the cornerstone of Carroll's coaching skill set, and the Seahawks finished in the bottom quadrant of the league in total defense in each of his last three years here.

So far the Raiders (1-4) are 20th in total defense with Carroll at the helm and sit at the bottom of the AFC West with the second-worst point differential in the NFL. So moving on was the right option. And it paved the way for …

Hiring Mike Macdonald

Macdonald had a rough day from a defensive standpoint Sunday, but he was without three of his four starting defensive backs. What he's done in 22 games as the team's coach, though, is turn the Seahawks defense from reprehensible to respectable. Seattle was 30th in total defense in 2023 but 14th last year and 17th this year. Again, not elite as some might have been hoping for, but they've had a rash of injuries that goes beyond the norm.

As I wrote last week, narratives can change quickly in the NFL. A 3-0 Seahawks team was 4-5 six games later last season, and who knows if this three-point loss to Tampa Bay is the start of a skid.

But for now Seattle looks well-positioned to win now and in the future. The people on the field deserve credit — but so do the people who put those people on the field.

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