It’s the biggest trade in some time and everyone has an opinion on the Micah Parsons-to-Green Bay deal.
There’s been talk about whether the Seahawks should’ve outbid the Packers and pulled the trigger themselves. I’ve gone back and forth in my own mind on that question for a few weeks. I’ve decided to say no and I’ll explain why in a moment.
Firstly though, we have to accept that it was never likely to happen. The peerless Brady Henderson, who everyone should pay attention to when he speaks on these matters, ruled it out some time ago. The Seahawks were never going to make this move, didn’t want any of the drama attached to Parsons and were never seemingly considering it.
For anyone wondering if that’s the right stance to take, remember that the Seahawks have Parsons’ former coach on their staff in Aden Durde. Not only that, they signed DeMarcus Lawrence earlier this year. In almost no time at all, Lawrence and Parsons exchanged an online war of words following an interview the former did with Brian Nemhauser where he questioned his chances of winning a Super Bowl in Dallas.
Considering how much the Seahawks have praised Lawrence’s veteran leadership, and given his apparent disdain for Parsons, it’s hardly surprising they didn’t fancy bringing him to the PNW.
Let’s also not forget controversy plagued Parsons’ pre-draft process following reports over a hazing complaint at Penn State. It makes for difficult reading.
The point is there was plenty of background and experience with this player to make a call before you even get into the price of a contract and trade. The Seahawks, as with other teams, could’ve gone all-in to acquire Parsons and chose not to.
Now onto the other reasons why I wouldn’t have done the trade:
1. The need to retain stock
The Packers are in a different place to the Seahawks. They’ve drafted a quarterback in round one, had multiple years to assess Jordan Love and then signed him to a big extension. They are at a stage in their process where they are 100% committed to their man. In the last two seasons they have a 1-2 playoff record and want to smash through into a serious contender.
The Seahawks haven’t qualified for the playoffs for the last two seasons. They haven’t had multiple years with their quarterback and will spend this season assessing Sam Darnold. Nobody can say with any certainty whether they’ve found ‘the guy’. They are realistically where the Packers were a couple of years ago, starting out with Love under center.
They might need to draft a quarterback next year. Spending your next couple of first rounders on a defensive player won’t feel very wise if you have an elite defense in 2025 and are let down by the QB. What then?
I appreciate that an elite defense would also help Darnold and the offense and Parsons is clearly one of the best in the business. If Darnold plays badly, though, there’s nothing an edge rusher can do about that. The Seahawks are duty bound to see how this year goes at quarterback and review things in a few months. They are not yet in a position like the Packers where it is time to push all of the chips into the middle of the table.
2. Mike Macdonald can succeed without an elite pass rusher
He won a Head Coaching gig in Baltimore by creating the #1 ranked DVOA defense in 2023. That year, the Ravens led the NFL in sacks with 60. Their best pass rushers were Nnamdi Madubuike, Jadeveon Clowney and Kyle Van Noy.
None of their defensive tackles or pass rushers ranked in the top-15 per PFF grade. Roquan Smith ranked 17th at linebacker. None of their cornerbacks ranked in the top-50. Kyle Hamilton was the ninth best safety.
It paints a picture of clever scheming and the cumulative group being the main factor, rather than relying on difference makers.
We saw that in Seattle last year as the defense developed into one of the better units in the league. Leonard Williams played at a fantastic level most weeks but overall, the Seahawks were not relying on a superstar or two just playing better than anyone else. It was the whole unit succeeding.
This doesn’t mean the Seahawks are guaranteed to continue growing in 2025 and won’t in the future require a blue-chip difference maker. They might as well let Macdonald crack on first, though, before rushing to try and accelerate growth.
It feels a little bit like he thinks he needs a certain type of player — low maintenance, committed, prepared to do their job within structure. I suspect he’s more comfortable adding a veteran like Lawrence and complementing them with the youth of someone like Nick Emmanwori, rather than going for the splashy big name who suddenly gets $47m a year.
As with the quarterback position, this should be a year for assessment. If he can push the Seahawks towards having one of the top defenses in the NFL without having to go all-out to acquire someone like Parsons, as he did in Baltimore, then they can keep their resources and avoid taking on a massive outsider contract.
3. The price would’ve been too much
Parsons is a top player, clearly, and that comes with a hefty price-tag. Sacrificing Kenny Clark and two first rounders is reasonable for the Packers. Given the Cowboys seemingly wanted to fix their run defense with a quality defensive tackle — would you have been prepared to give up Leonard Williams? Or wave away Byron Murphy — a top-20 pick — after just one season in the league? I wouldn’t have been comfortable with that.
On top of this, $47m a year for a non-quarterback feels especially rich even with an expanding salary cap. The Seahawks have a number of young players approaching the time where they can expect to begin negotiations over second contracts. Do you really want to set an extraordinary bar for their expectations? Or cede leverage with an obvious, ‘well you gave him a massive deal’ counter to anything you offer?
Can Parsons even live up to the contract? After all, the Cowboys only won one playoff game during his four years with the team. It’s not like they didn’t have talent on the offensive line, at quarterback and weapons either. His presence did not automatically turn Dallas into a big winner. There may be reasons for that, such as coaching or even Jones’ meddling. The point is though, adding Parsons was never going to guarantee anything. For $47m a year, millions more than the next best pass rusher in the league, that’s an eye-watering price to pay when it might not be necessary to push Macdonald’s unit to the top of the tree.
4. Drafting well and smart trades is still the key
It’s very rare that big ballsy trades get you to the promise land. The only recent example is the Rams with their ‘F those picks’ approach that clinched a Super Bowl. Their big move was to acquire a quarterback and pair him with Sean McVay. That is a lot more understandable than going big on a defensive player. The quarterback being their big move is more palatable than trying to pump investment into the defense to prop up Jared Goff (who they sent to Detroit in the deal for Matthew Stafford).
Most other contenders are built like the Eagles. Savvy veteran trades that are more about value than splurge, smart drafting, knowing who and what you want to be and player development.
It’s plausible to argue, as we often have, that the Seahawks need some of their good young players to become ‘great’ in order to take the next step. It’s also likely they’ll need to hit on a trade or two in the future — such as the 49ers did with Trent Williams and Christian McCaffrey.
Those are calculated moves though. I’m not sure the big splash is the way to go and those moves (Percy Harvin, Jamal Adams) didn’t work for the Seahawks in the past. They’re better off being opportunistic and although the Leonard Williams and Ernest Jones trades were quite expensive rentals initially, given both re-signed, the deals look more favourable over time.
They’ve drafted well recently and need to continue doing that. They undoubtedly will continue to search for opportunities in the trade market. They now have the staff — offensively and defensively — to develop talent.
If it was as easy as ‘acquire and pay a big name player then immediately become a contender’ someone would’ve outbid the Packers.
The Seahawks were right to sit this one out.
