The Seattle Seahawks are down bad right now. After starting out the season 3-0 and raising hopes of a deep playoff run, they have lost three straight games and suffered a rash of injuries to their defense. If rookie head coach Mike Macdonald can't figure out a way to stop the bleeding, there's a chance this losing streak could go on for a while, as the team is about to enter the toughest part of its regular season schedule.
Next Sunday the team travels to face the much-improved Atlanta Falcons, followed by a home game against the AFC powerhouse Buffalo Bills. From there they only have one game before the NFL's trade deadline this year: a home game against the Los Angeles Rams, who always give them trouble even if they're not a playoff team.
If Seattle comes out of that portion of the schedule with a record like 3-6, you could make a case for them to be sellers at the trade deadline. One Bills beat writer thinks they'll wind up trading star wide receiver DK Metcalf to Buffalo. Here's Marissa Meyers at TWSN on the Metcalf-to-Buffalo proposal.
TWSN on DK to Bills
"The team to initiate this trade has to be the Buffalo Bills. While this would take multiple first and second round picks, plus maybe a player like a Von Miller, it’s one that Buffalo needs to do. Despite having Josh Allen at quarterback, who is great at uplifting the talent around him, he can only do so much when the wide receivers are struggling to gain separation."
Why DK Metcalf isn't going anywhere
It certainly makes sense for the Bills, but we don't see any reason why the Seahawks should deal DK Metcalf to them, or anybody else. Even if they were to lose every game for the rest of the 2024 season, Seattle would be better off keeping DK at the top of their receiver depth chart. Unless there's some kind of major drama between Metcalf and the front office going on behind the scenes that we don't know about, we don't see Metcalf leaving the Seahawks - not this year and not until his NFL career is over.
Who could get traded instead?
If the Seahawks do decide to sell and pick up some extra draft capital for 2024, they would want to deal from a position of strength. With their cornerback room hammered by injuries and Tyler Lockett's contract restructure seemingly designed to prevent him from getting traded, that means it would probably have to be from their interior defensive line, which was ranked one of the best units in the league on paper coming into this season.
Leonard Williams is too valuable to trade and his contract makes it impossible to deal him anyway. Byron Murphy isn't going anywhere, and they'll want to keep at least one true nose tackle on the roster with Johnathan Hankins. However, Jarran Reed might be a tradeable piece for a team looking to pick up iDL help at the deadline. Reed is 32 years old and will be a free agent at the end of this season, making it easy to move on from him after the 2024 season is over. Reed has posted two sacks and five quarterback hits this year.
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