Sam Darnold To Sign With The Seahawks

[Jegpeg]

I am not convinced.

• He isn't that cheap. Heading numbers are not everything but if we are paying him $110.5 and Geno $13.5 (in dead cap) that is a total of $123.5 cap space taken in 3 years or an average of $41m not much less than Geno was asking for.
• Is he a stop gap? If we are talking about keeping him for a year and then getting out QBOTF starting in 2026 $55m + Genos dead cap seems a lot.
• I had heard an arguement for trading Geno was that we have the most rookies on our roster in the NFL. Woolen, Cross, Walker, Lucas, Mafe, Brown and Bryant all have 3 accrued seasons and will soon have to be paid or cut. If we want a decent number of them needed to make cap space by trading Geno but getting Darnold buts us back where we started.
• Darnold had a great season last year but that was with an above O-line and a stella receiving corps, how much of the improvment in his stats was due to his skill set and how much due to the team around him?

There again I was one of those people who before the 2022 season though the only reason we could possibly be relying on Sminth an Locke in the QB room was we wanted a high draft pick in 2023 to get someone like Young or Stroud. I know a lot less about this game than John and Mike.

 

[hugecanoli]

Fans are fickle.
We love to bitch and complain but nobody knows how the dude is going to do here.
All we can do is hope last year with Minn was a blueprint for improvement or at least a positive trajectory.

He's wearing our uniform, so I will root for him. Scream at him. Hope he does great friggan things.

I mentioned this earlier, but we as a franchise have had uncanny stability at the QB position the past 10-15 years.
Best case, it continues. Worst case, we let our new HC run the team in the lense he sees fit and we roll with the punches and hope to grab someone in the draft next year.

PS - My wife is a Penn State Allumni, so I watch all their games. I would LOVE if we took a flyer on Drew Aller next year. Kids got lots of potential.

That is all...everyone have a cocktail tonight and try to relax. Long offseason ahead with hopefully plenty more things to look forward to added to our club.

 

[bileever]

My thoughts and feelings about Sam Darnold are evolving. Ever since Geno was traded, I've been hoping against hope that we wouldn't sign Darnold. I guess I wasn't convinced that he could do it again without O'Connell and the Vikings offense.

But I'm feeling okay about it now that it's been a few hours. It's a lot better than not having a quarterback. Yes, Darnold may have hit his ceiling last year, but if he can replicate that, I would take it in a heartbeat. I think that as long as we can fix the other problems, like the O-line and finding some receivers, Darnold will be just fine.

 

[Seahawk_Dan]

I think Darnold will do fine here. Besides, his deal is similar to the Baker Mayfield deal. It's not a huge investment and it's structured more like a two year deal and have the option to boot him to save cost or if they find a QB in the draft that develops and takes over.

This was probably a similar deal that they wanted to give Geno, but Geno thinks he's better than he really is and the team sent him packing and got a 3rd for it.

 

[AROS]

You don't win 14 games being a shitty QB I can assure you. Now those last two games? Hmm. Does make you pause but he put up plenty of tape last year that shows he has what it takes to be a upper tier QB in the NFL. Will he be with us? Time will tell but I don't feel bad about this one bit. Next year? We may want to hunt down our future QB in the draft.

 

[Appyhawk]

The way I look at it is we are better off today than we were yesterday. But I am especially grateful that we have a truckload of draft resources and some ready cash to use to make us a better team.

I will root for Darnold to have a better year this year than he had last year.

 

[Scout]

I am not convinced.

• He isn't that cheap. Heading numbers are not everything but if we are paying him $110.5 and Geno $13.5 (in dead cap) that is a total of $123.5 cap space taken in 3 years or an average of $41m not much less than Geno was asking for.
• Is he a stop gap? If we are talking about keeping him for a year and then getting out QBOTF starting in 2026 $55m + Genos dead cap seems a lot.
• I had heard an arguement for trading Geno was that we have the most rookies on our roster in the NFL. Woolen, Cross, Walker, Lucas, Mafe, Brown and Bryant all have 3 accrued seasons and will soon have to be paid or cut. If we want a decent number of them needed to make cap space by trading Geno but getting Darnold buts us back where we started.
• Darnold had a great season last year but that was with an above O-line and a stella receiving corps, how much of the improvment in his stats was due to his skill set and how much due to the team around him?

There again I was one of those people who before the 2022 season though the only reason we could possibly be relying on Sminth an Locke in the QB room was we wanted a high draft pick in 2023 to get someone like Young or Stroud. I know a lot less about this game than John and Mike.

JS doesn't understand cap discipline and has put the team in a pickle.

 

[Natethegreat]

The way I look at it is we are better off today than we were yesterday. But I am especially grateful that we have a truckload of draft resources and some ready cash to use to make us a better team.

I will root for Darnold to have a better year this year than he had last year.

Now that would be awesome! Highly unlikely though.

 

[retro74]

I’ll definitely be on his side, I respect anyone that plays in the NFL, they’ve certainly worked harder than I have!

But he needs a lot of help, OL and some targets, which aren’t in place at present. That’s why I’m not expecting much, as I said on an earlier post. Not a slight on Darnold, more the pieces around

Considering all the elements, not just talent, the team is in a slightly better place with these two QB trades

 

[kidhawk]

I am not convinced.

• He isn't that cheap. Heading numbers are not everything but if we are paying him $110.5 and Geno $13.5 (in dead cap) that is a total of $123.5 cap space taken in 3 years or an average of $41m not much less than Geno was asking for.

• 
  
  This is not how the cap works. The dead money is money that Geno already received prior to trading him. This has absolutely nothing to do with any contracts moving forward. Even if Geno signed an extension that money was on our books. Even without that money Geno was reportedly looking for $40-$45 million per year. This works out to $7-$12 million per year more than Darnold.
  
  This is what is widely reported for Darnold.
  
  $37.5 million in year one (once the contract is signed we will see how much of that is signing bonus but I’d guess at least $33 million.
  
  He’s getting $55 million guaranteed which means he has another $17.5 million guaranteed for year 2.
  
  This leaves us $45.5 million not guaranteed. Some of that may be in year 2 salary that isn’t guaranteed or it might be his year 3 salary. If that is his year 3 salary then this contract is a real steal.
  
  Once we see the full signed contract numbers we will have a better idea of the money but this is really looking like a two year deal with a third year where we can see if we want to keep him or not.

 

[Scout]

I’ll definitely be on his side, I respect anyone that plays in the NFL, they’ve certainly worked harder than I have!

But he needs a lot of help, OL and some targets, which aren’t in place at present. That’s why I’m not expecting much, as I said on an earlier post. Not a slight on Darnold, more the pieces around

Considering all the elements, not just talent, the team is in a slightly better place with these two QB trades

That is my take as well because the lack of pieces around Darnold is my main concern.

 

[HawkFreak]

• 
  
  This is not how the cap works. The dead money is money that Geno already received prior to trading him. This has absolutely nothing to do with any contracts moving forward. Even if Geno signed an extension that money was on our books. Even without that money Geno was reportedly looking for $40-$45 million per year. This works out to $7-$12 million per year more than Darnold.
  
  This is what is widely reported for Darnold.
  
  $37.5 million in year one (once the contract is signed we will see how much of that is signing bonus but I’d guess at least $33 million.
  
  He’s getting $55 million guaranteed which means he has another $17.5 million guaranteed for year 2.
  
  This leaves us $45.5 million not guaranteed. Some of that may be in year 2 salary that isn’t guaranteed or it might be his year 3 salary. If that is his year 3 salary then this contract is a real steal.
  
  Once we see the full signed contract numbers we will have a better idea of the money but this is really looking like a two year deal with a third year where we can see if we want to keep him or not.

Thank you for clarifying this.

For people who hate this move - there is no spinning this that it is equal to or worse financially than it would have been if they kept Geno. Plus there's the value of the 3rd round pick.

It appears that it may have been more than just about the money as to the reason why Geno wanted out. If he didn't want to play for the Seahawks any more then the trade had to happen.

 

[hgwellz12]

My thoughts and feelings about Sam Darnold are evolving. Ever since Geno was traded, I've been hoping against hope that we wouldn't sign Darnold. I guess I wasn't convinced that he could do it again without O'Connell and the Vikings offense.

But I'm feeling okay about it now that it's been a few hours. It's a lot better than not having a quarterback. Yes, Darnold may have hit his ceiling last year, but if he can replicate that, I would take it in a heartbeat. I think that as long as we can fix the other problems, like the O-line and finding some receivers, Darnold will be just fine.

The bolded is honestly my biggest concern.

 

[LeveeBreak]

• 
  
  This is not how the cap works. The dead money is money that Geno already received prior to trading him. This has absolutely nothing to do with any contracts moving forward. Even if Geno signed an extension that money was on our books. Even without that money Geno was reportedly looking for $40-$45 million per year. This works out to $7-$12 million per year more than Darnold.
  
  This is what is widely reported for Darnold.
  
  $37.5 million in year one (once the contract is signed we will see how much of that is signing bonus but I’d guess at least $33 million.
  
  He’s getting $55 million guaranteed which means he has another $17.5 million guaranteed for year 2.
  
  This leaves us $45.5 million not guaranteed. Some of that may be in year 2 salary that isn’t guaranteed or it might be his year 3 salary. If that is his year 3 salary then this contract is a real steal.
  
  Once we see the full signed contract numbers we will have a better idea of the money but this is really looking like a two year deal with a third year where we can see if we want to keep him or not.

I was going to post something close to this, but figured someone responded already. Geno's dead $$ is a sunk cost. You don't evaluate sunk costs for future business strategies.

 

[bileever]

I was going to post something close to this, but figured someone responded already. Geno's dead $$ is a sunk cost. You don't evaluate sunk costs for future business strategies.

Well, the original poster has a point, that the total cap being dedicated to the cost of a QB is the same as if we had signed Geno for $40 million or so. That's all he's saying. He's not arguing that the Darnold contract is per se bad.

 

[kidhawk]

Well, the original poster has a point, that the total cap being dedicated to the cost of a QB is the same as if we had signed Geno for $40 million or so. That's all he's saying. He's not arguing that the Darnold contract is per se bad.

But it’s not true. If Geno signs for let’s say $40 million per year then you still had that $13 million hanging around. So there’s still a $7 million per year difference. The thing with dead money is it’s already paid out. Geno was going to get an extension but wanted more than we got Darnold for. This we are acing that cap money.

 

[Chapow]

I’ll definitely be on his side, I respect anyone that plays in the NFL, they’ve certainly worked harder than I have!

But he needs a lot of help, OL and some targets, which aren’t in place at present. That’s why I’m not expecting much, as I said on an earlier post. Not a slight on Darnold, more the pieces around

Considering all the elements, not just talent, the team is in a slightly better place with these two QB trades

I was just about to post something very similar to this. I've been watching a fair amount of ESPN and NFL Network, and I'm hearing a whole lot of the talking heads saying he's going to need a lot more help than he appears to have right now. Specifically, OL, more/better receiving options, and an effective running game. So, pretty much everything. That's a whole lot of stuff that needs to improve in 1 off season. Hopefully Kubiak is a step in the right direction in regards to improved OL play and a more effective running game.

Hoping this works out, but like you, I'm not expecting much from Darnold unless the rest of offense gets a whole lot better.

 

[Fresno Hawk]

This is why I didnt want the hawks to sign Darnold. The money we saved for trading Geno is now not a savings.

 

[WmHBonney]

We should have just rolled with Howell and spent our capital on Oline. Howell is younger and cheaper than Darnold.

 

[Cyrus12]

The fact Minny didn't even try to bring him back is very concerning as is Darnold's previous track record. Mccarthy coming off major knee surgery and totally unproven beat out the re signing of Darnold who literally imploded in two huge games. He also had stellar weapons at wr and te. That doesn't exist here minus JSN. Right now I view this as a younger cheaper Geno comparison with a decent degree of probability of bust potential. I'm 40/60 on this working out.