Drew Lock is coming back. Seahawks signing puts Sam Howell’s future in doubt
Drew Lock is back.
One year after they let him leave Seattle then traded for Sam Howell to be their backup quarterback, the Seahawks have reversed themselves. They are signing Lock back.
Seattle and Lock, 28, agreed Friday to a contract, per multiple reports. It’s a two-year deal worth $5 million, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
It appears Lock, who rallied the Seahawks to a win over the playoff-bound Philadelphia Eagles late in the 2023 season, will be the backup to a new Sam. That is, new Seahawks starter Sam Darnold.
Sam Howell’s future
Lock’s return puts the 24-year-old Howell’s future with the Seahawks in doubt.
The starter and league leader in interceptions in 2023 for the Washington Commanders, Howell was alarmingly inaccurate during training camp last summer. Then in the only chance he had to play for Seattle in a game that counted in 2024, he played poorly.
He got rushed in unprepared to replace the injured Geno Smith against Green Bay in December. Howell held onto the ball too long that night. He hesitated while completing just five of 14 passes for 24 yards in Seattle’s home loss. It helped eliminate the team from the postseason for the second consecutive year.
He got sacked four times that night against the Packers. He often held onto the ball well past 3 seconds, as if he thought the Seahawks had the best offensive line in football, not one of the NFL’s worst. He scrambled once.
So that was 19 drop backs with just five completions. That has happened only 20 times in the last 25 NFL seasons, ESPN analyst Benjamin Solak reported.
It furthered the Seahawks’ fears Howell is not their quarterback of the future as they considered 12 months ago. It suggested they shouldn’t have traded a third-round and fifth-round draft pick to Washington last spring to get Howell for a fourth- and a sixth-round pick in return.
“I’ve just got to be better,” Howell said that night.
Those 24 snaps against the Packers were his last for the Seahawks. He had one other earlier last season, when Smith went out for one play during Seattle’s win at Atlanta last October.
Lock’s new Seahawks contract is for longer than Howell is signed with Seattle.
Howell’s rookie contract ends after the 2025 season. The Seahawks inherited it from the Commanders for Washington’s fifth-round pick in 2022 out of North Carolina. He is scheduled to have a base salary of $1.1 million this year.
All of that is not guaranteed. The Seahawks could release Howell at any time between now and the next season beginning and owe him nothing, without a salary-cap charge into the 2025 season.
Smith left Seattle last month. The team traded him to Las Vegas, in a reunion with former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, following a brief contract impasse.
Days after they traded Smith to the Raiders, the Seahawks signed Darnold. He got a three-year contract worth up to $100.5 million from Minnesota in free agency.
Drew Lock’s first Seahawks go
Lock first came to the Seahawks in March 2022, from Denver as one of three players plus five draft choices Seattle got for trading Russell Wilson to the Broncos.
Carroll chose Smith over Lock to be Wilson’s successor with the Seahawks for the 2022 season, and beyond.
Lock played in just four games in two seasons for the Seahawks, all in 2023.
The former Broncos starter made two starts for the injured Smith.
He completed 22 of 31 passes for 269 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in Seattle’s 28-16 loss at San Francisco Dec. 10, 2023.
Eight days later, on a Monday night against the Eagles at Lumen Field, Lock found out he was starting minutes before kickoff — then out-played Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts. Down by four points in a 2-minute drill late in the game, Lock’s 44-yard heave to DK Metcalf, then 28-yard strike onto Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s fingertips for a touchdown, sent Seattle to victory.
“I’ll remember that play call for the rest of my life,” Lock said that night of his throw to Smith-Njigba with 28 seconds left in that game.
Smith returned the following week to finish Seattle’s 2023 season. They ended 9-8 and out of the playoffs for only the third time in 12 years.
The Seahawks fired Carroll days after that season ended. General manager John Schneider and new coach Mike Macdonald then let Lock leave in free agency. He signed a one-year contract with the New York Giants worth $5 million.
After the Giants discarded failed starter Daniel Jones during last season, Lock made five starts for New York from late November through the final game Jan. 5. He lost four of them for a 3-14 team. He completed 59.9% of his passes in those starts (103 of 172) for 1,062 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions, for a passer rating of 77.23. His win was in week 17 at Indianapolis. He threw for 309 yards and four touchdowns against zero interceptions in beating the Colts 45-33.
His father Andy Lock, a well-known restaurant owner in the Kansas City, Missouri, area, died last week. Drew followed his dad in starring at the University of Missouri. Andy Lock was captain of the Tigers’ football team in the 1980s.
The Kansas City-area group of restaurants Andy Lock founded closed Friday for lunch in his memory.
This story was originally published April 11, 2025 at 1:44 PM.
