SEATTLE – The way Mike Macdonald views it, there’s really only one goal in any football season.
“Well, I want to win the Super Bowl,” he said Tuesday when asked if the Seahawks had met expectations in his rookie season as head coach. “In order to do that you’ve got to win games, and then you’ve got to make the dance. You want to win your division, you’ve got to win your conference, and then you want to win the Super Bowl.
“We did a lot of the first goal. We won 10 of our games. We didn’t achieve any of the other goals. So, ultimately, we fell short. But, there are other things that we felt like we did well where we’re building in a position to go attack this thing moving forward.”
It’ll take another 12 months before we know if the Seahawks took a step forward that leads to a bigger one in 2025.
As Macdonald’s statement made clear, the future is the focus.
So as the Seahawks turn their attention to 2025 – which will be their 50th season in the NFL – let’s look ahead by answering 12 questions about the offseason, starting with the most pressing.
Q: Will Geno Smith be the quarterback in 2025?
A: Yes. The guess here is the two sides work something out to give Smith the raise he wants and assure he isn’t entering the 2025 season with free agency looming, which would be uncomfortable for everyone involved.
For all the understandable discussion of Smith’s play this season, the question remains – is there a better, realistic alternative?
While other QBs could become available, Minnesota’s Sam Darnold and Pittsburgh’s Russell Wilson are the only QBs who are starters who are set to hit free agency.
That Darnold thrived in Minnesota has led to conjecture he’ll re-sign and rookie J.J. McCarthy (who missed the year with a knee injury) could be available via trade.
Would the Seahawks dump Smith to install a rookie coming off a knee injury? Sure, they could try to add someone such as McCarthy to compete, but he would come at a prohibitive cost that might hinder other avenues for making the team better.
The only three QBs considered worthy of the first round of the draft – Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Miami’s Cam Ward and Alabama’s Jalen Milroe – are expected to be gone by the time the Seahawks pick at No. 18.
This QB draft class is regarded as one of the weakest in recent memory. Draft analyst Ian Valentino of atozsports.com wrote this week: “We barely gave out 10 draftable grades (to quarterbacks), and four of those were fringe players who will top out as backups.”
True, Smith turns 35 in October, but nothing this season indicated that age is taking a toll.
Smith won’t necessarily have a lot of leverage. Another three-year contract, that’s more accurately a two-year deal, that keeps Smith in Seattle seems a logical outcome.
Q: Can the offensive line improve?
A: It better. The understandable focus on Smith overlooked the pressure he was constantly under.
According to TheAnalyst.com, Smith threw more passes under duress this season than anyone else in the NFL. He finished fifth in the NFL in completion percentage above expectation, via NFL Next Gen stats, which takes into account the circumstances a QB faces on each throw.
The Seahawks appear to have one sure thing on its line in 2025 – left tackle Charles Cross. They hope another offseason for right tackle Abe Lucas to get healthy will help him return to his rookie form.
The Seahawks should address both guard spots and center in free agency and the draft.
Q: What was the most encouraging trend?
A: The biggest is that the Seahawks’ defensive numbers were largely better across the board.
That was the hope when Macdonald – who got the job based on the reputation he earned as one of the top young defensive minds in the NFL – was hired to replace Pete Carroll.
The Seahawks finished 11th in points allowed after ranking 25th each of the last two seasons. They finished 14th in yards allowed after ranking 30th, 26th, 28th, 22nd and 26th dating to 2019, which was the first full season without a founding member of the Legion of Boom secondary on the roster.
One area for the defense to improve? The Seahawks ranked just 23rd in turnover ratio and tied for 16th in takeaways with 18, the same as a year ago.
Q: What 2024 trend is concerning?
A: While 10 wins was nice – and allowed Macdonald to finish with the most victories of any first-year head coach in team history, surpassing the nine of Chuck Knox (1983) and Mike Holmgren (1999) – the Seahawks went just 2-5 against teams that finished the season with winning records.
That included the season-opening 24-3 win over Denver in Bo Nix’s first NFL start, and the season finale against a Rams team resting most of its starters.
The Seahawks went 0-5 in the middle of the season against the best teams it played. To be fair, their wins were the difference in Miami and Atlanta finishing 8-9 instead of 9-8.
The Seahawks allowed 20 or more points in every game they played against a team that finished with a winning record, and yielded an average of 28.7.
The defense did show vast improvement following the bye, as the Seahawks won six of their last eight.
Still, in the three games they played in that span against teams that finished with winning records, the Seahawks allowed 30, 27 and 25 points, allowing an average of 356.6 yards per game (compared to 332.7 for the season).
That indicates that the Seahawks finished right where they belonged – and that there is still room for the defense to grow.
Q: What’s the one stat that has to improve in 2025?
A: The Seahawks’ 3-6 home record, the worst since they went 2-6 in Holmgren’s last season in 2008. The Seahawks countered by going 7-1 on the road, tying the best mark in team history.
As Macdonald said Tuesday: “It’s great to be 7-1 on the road, but we’ve got to make this place a nightmare for teams that come in and play us and utilize our fans and the crowd and the 12s and kind of the whole ’12 is 1′ mantra. … So that’s going to be a major focus for us this offseason.”
Q: Is the Seahawks’ salary-cap situation concerning?
A: On the surface, yes, as the Seahawks are more than $16 million over the cap for 2025, according to OvertheCap.com.
A few moves could bring it down quickly.
Smith has a $44.5 million cap hit and an extension would decrease that number.
Cutting Tyler Lockett – which sadly seems like where things are headed – would save $17 million. Cutting outside linebacker Dre’Mont Jones – who is entering the final year of his deal – would cut $11.5 million. Cutting tight end Noah Fant would save $9 million. Cutting defensive lineman Roy Robertson-Harris – who turns 32 in July and saw his playing time decrease markedly as the year wore on – would save $6.5 million. Cutting safety Rayshawn Jenkins – who lost his starting job at midseason to Coby Bryant – would save $5.4 million.
That’s $49.4 million along with whatever the Seahawks might be able to shave off Smith’s deal. Giving DK Metcalf an extension could also bring down his $31.8 million cap hit.
So, there’s work to be done, but it’s more than doable.
Q: Wlll Ernest Jones IV re-sign?
A: The call here is an emphatic “yes.’’
As noted above, the Seahawks can find the money to keep the people they want this offseason. Jones is their most significant internal fee agent and surely a priority.
The report last week that talks had paused felt like part of the negotiating process. With Jones seeming, well, earnest in his desire to stay, and the Seahawks wanting to keep him, this figures this eventually happens.
Q: Will the Seahawks make a big splash in free agency?
A: The cap space the Seahawks create may be to keep some of their own players (notably Jones and maybe extensions for some of the 2022 rookie class, notably Cross).
The free agent class for 2025 isn’t regarded as overly strong, and likely to get weaker as teams re-sign their pending FAs. There are some intriguing OL options, if they actually hit the market – most usually don’t. Expect the Seahawks to hit that spot the most.
Q: What position may need more help than it seems?
A: Rush end/outside linebacker. The Seahawks’ pass rush wasn’t bad in 2024. They finished ninth in the NFL in sacks with 54, but that was buoyed interior lineman Leonard Williams’ 11.
They finished 16th in ESPN’s pass-rush win rate rankings. Not bad, but not elite. With Uchenna Nwosu again battling injuries in 2024, and Jones possibly a salary-cap casualty, the Seahawks might need to make an aggressive move to add to the edge rush.
Q: How does the schedule look?
A: The Seahawks’ slate of opponents for 2025 was solidified over the weekend. Game dates, times and TV will be set in the spring.
Home: Cardinals, Rams, 49ers, Texans, Colts, Saints, Buccaneers, Vikings.
Road: Cardinals, Rams, 49ers, Falcons, Panthers, Jaguars, Titans, Commanders, Steelers.
On the surface, it shapes up to be a slightly easier schedule than this year. The win-loss percentage of their opponents was .498%. The combined win-loss percentage of the 2025 foes is .474%. Much can change between now and the fall.
Intriguingly, it sets up potential rematches with two of the team’s most iconic players – Wilson, if he re-signs in Pittsburgh, and Bobby Wagner if he re-signs in Washington.
Q: How does the draft look for the Seahawks?
A: The Seahawks are projected for eight picks. The have the 18th pick in the first round. They also have their own picks in the second, third and seventh rounds.
The Seahawks are projected to get compensatory picks for the losses of free agents Damien Lewis (fourth round), Jordyn Brooks (fifth) and Wagner (sixth) and own Chicago’s pick in the sixth round from the Darrell Taylor trade.
The comp picks are officially awarded in the spring and affect the order from the third round on.
Q: Will Mike Macdonald be an even better coach in 2025?
A: The season showed promise with the way the defense progressed and how Macdonald rode out the storm of losing five out of six games at midseason to get the team back in playoff contention.
Tuesday, in his season-ending news conference, Macdonald – the youngest coach in the NFL when he was hired – offered this assessment of what he learned in 2024 that he hopes will help him in 2025.
“You come in with a lot of ideas and what you find is you really need (to) double down on the basic principles that you want the team to be founded upon,” he said. “You realize that pretty early. It’s way clearer on understanding what we need to do day-in, and day-out – what it feels like, what it looks like as a team, and what it’s going to take to be a championship football team.
“… So I think as a team and players, the conversations we’ve had, coaches, just the shared understanding of having gone through the experience (the) understanding of what we’re trying to create is a lot clearer now.”