The 2024 season officially concluded with the Philadelphia Eagles' complete dismantling of the Kansas City Chiefs during Super Bowl LIX. Which means it is now officially time to start focusing on the 2025 season! As 31 other fanbases got to watch Philly hoist the Lombardi on Sunday night, the itch to want to see their team do something similar next year in Santa Clara grew.
As such, ESPN is already giving everyone a taste of what is yet to come, with their "way too early" power rankings for 2025. ESPN did not just have power rankings for the league, they also asked their local writers covering each team to come up with three words to describe the team's offseason goals. Clearly, all but one team this year ended their season without winning it all, so improvement is an obvious goal for all. But how to achieve it?
The Seahawks are squarely in the middle of these rankings at No. 15 overall, which seems fair. At times in 2024, Seattle looked like a cohesive unit that threatened to win the NFC West. But for the majority of the year, they showed plenty of reasons why they were not a playoff caliber team. A lot of growth must be made, yet the Seahawks will have to get creative with how they do it.
ESPN's Brady Henderson chose these three words to describe Seattle's offseason: "whom to pay?"
"Fifteen of their starters are either pending free agents (Ernest Jones IV, Jarran Reed, Laken Tomlinson), veterans who will want new deals (Geno Smith, DK Metcalf), 2022 draft picks who are eligible for extensions (Charles Cross, Boye Mafe, Kenneth Walker III, Abraham Lucas, Coby Bryant, Riq Woolen) or highly paid players who could conceivably be cut (Dre'Mont Jones, Tyler Lockett, Uchenna Nwosu, Noah Fant)."
The Seahawks are still $14ish million over the cap, even with freeing up an additional $14 million by restructuring Leonard Williams' contract. Henderson is accurate in his assessment that finding a way to create the best team for 2025 will be more challenging than usual, given Seattle's cap situation.
Whatever decisions the team will have to make, there are two clear priorities: signing linebacker Ernest Jones IV and giving quarterback Geno Smith an extension.
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