“Let me say this, I think there’s going to be some intriguing scenarios out there for Sam Darnold.”

Said with a huge grin on his face in the video above, Adam Schefter let it be known that he already has a good idea what Darnold’s market will be like if/when he reaches free agency next year.

When I listened to this initially, it caught my ear. The way he phrased it, and with his expression, Schefter knows something. There’s nothing ‘intriguing’ for Darnold in New York with the Giants, Tennessee or Las Vegas. This was something juicier, perhaps something people weren’t commonly discussing yet.

I wondered whether the Seahawks might be a team Schefter had in mind. Then I did my Monday live stream with Jeff Simmons and we discussed the Rams. That makes sense. Matt Stafford turns 37 in February and isn’t having a great season. He might retire at the end of the season. Or the Rams might designate him as a post-June 1st cut, to split a $45.3m dead cap charge over two years and move on.

They could then go and sign Darnold. It sounds perfect. He’s played wonderfully for Sean McVay protégé Kevin O’Connell. It’d be ideal to convert that into a longer term arrangement back in LA where he played college football for USC, now with McVay. With the way he’s playing in Minnesota, that could be a scary proposition for the rest of the NFC West.

If I was going to put money on what happens in the off-season with Darnold, that would be my guess. That would be incredibly attractive for the quarterback.

I do just wonder if the Seahawks will try and muscle in on the act. I’ve already written about why John Schneider might have interest in Darnold. I don’t think him playing very well in Seattle’s own stadium did him any harm in the eyes of Schneider.

Especially when you are making plays like this under pressure to win the game:

The Seahawks are currently going year-to-year with Geno Smith and they may continue to do that after this season. It’s hard though, to possess a bridge quarterback without anyone to bridge to. The 2025 draft is thin and is unlikely, I’d say, to produce a quarterback the Seahawks can say ‘this is our future’ about.

I appreciate Smith has to deal with a lot in Seattle, including iffy play-calling and a bad offensive line. In a better environment he would perform better — but not, in my opinion, to a level that would you have you believe he’s capable of getting this franchise to where it needs to go. His propensity to mix between physical brilliance and frustrating turnovers — at his age — means he isn’t the future. It is very difficult to generate excitement within a franchise when the quarterback situation is short-term, lacking commitment and yet annually you don’t have anything in the way of ‘here’s the future, get excited’.

I don’t know whether Sam Darnold on a big contract will be more exciting to many but I do think Schneider could see a quarterback who is seven years younger, who has excelled in his first serious destination where he’s had a chance to start. An investment in him would be a bigger commitment for the future, rather than a year-to-year arrangement. And it would potentially buy some more time to look at alternatives in the draft, rather than reach.

They would have to pull off a home-run hire at offensive coordinator though, and a very attractive financial package, if they end up trying to get into a bidding war with the Rams. How the heck do you win that battle? I’m not sure they can, unless the Rams simply stick with Stafford because they’re unwilling to eat the dead money.

Schefter’s hint at something interesting, to me, screams a future union with Sean McVay. And if that happens, the Seahawks may have little choice to work out a short-term compromise contract with Smith to lower his 2025 cap hit. It’s an uninspiring situation though, especially given what we know about the quarterback class in the draft.

Three years on from the Russell Wilson trade, the Seahawks still don’t have much of a plan at the position.

I just get the sense they need a more disruptive off-season than some people think. This is a team that has gone 7-10, 9-8, 9-8 and is now 8-7 in the last four years. They are a middle of the road franchise, showing little sign of breaking into something else.

I know a lot of fans and media are resorting to the ‘this is OK for a fresh start under a young coach’ line but I agree with the people saying this is not how ownership or the GM envisioned things. I think they thought coaching changes would lead to better, more competitive results. Having the same record as the last two seasons, while entering an off-season where there are question marks about key aspects of the staff and roster, is not where they intended to be.

I don’t think blowing everything up is the answer at all. I do think difficult decisions need to be considered and maybe acted upon. That includes whether you trade DK Metcalf to shift resources to your offensive line. It includes a new offensive coordinator, which I think is inevitable at this point. It also includes making a more significant move at quarterback than simply kicking the can down the road with an older quarterback who lurches between good and bad.

Even if they need to fix the offensive line as the key priority, I don’t think it’s a given they just bring Smith back once they’ve worked to improve the trenches. I think that’s especially the case since Schneider has never felt completely bought into him.

I don’t know whether Darnold would be a marked improvement or whether it would work without a coach like Kevin O’Connell to guide him. I think the Seahawks might be willing to try though — in order to shake some life into the franchise, energise what feels like a flagging mojo around the place, and see if Darnold can recreate what he’s done in Minnesota this year.

But if it comes down to a straight shoot-out between the Rams and Seahawks, I don’t think they’ll win.

That would leave them back at square one, still scratching around looking for a future at the most important position in the sport.