The Seattle Seahawks will not want to revisit some of the drama from this offseason anytime soon—likely never again. Two key players, quarterback Geno Smith and wide receiver DK Metcalf, were unhappy with their contract situations and requested trades. Seattle obliged, and now they are gone.

General manager John Schneider abides by many principles when running the team. One is not to get into bidding wars, and one is not to be forced into a poor position by a player’s demands. If someone isn’t happy being a Seahawk, and part of that issue is how much they are making, Schneider would rather they be gone.

This is a logical approach because chemistry can make a team great or tear it apart. While the Seahawks were great in the first half of the 2010s, when a play-call mistake took a second Super Bowl victory away, many of the players began to lose faith in the state of the team. That, as much as anything, caused a slow regression for Seattle.

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Schneider is not going to want to battle players, and he certainly does not want to do that in contract negotiations.

This is why taking a certain quarterback prospect in 2026 might already be off the table. Schneider is unlikely to choose a QB in the 2025 draft after the team signed Drew Lock in free agency. The team now has three quarterbacks, and adding a fourth would not seem wise. Seattle is also probably only going to keep two on its active roster.