Seahawks trade QB Sam Howell to Vikings

The Seattle Seahawks have traded quarterback Sam Howell to the Vikings, Minnesota announced Saturday.

The Vikings traded pick No. 142 in the fifth round to the Seahawks in exchange for Howell and pick No. 172 in the fifth round.

Howell now becomes the likely backup to quarterback J.J. McCarthy. The Vikings also have quarterback Brett Rypien under contract.

General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah did not rule out the Vikings acquiring another quarterback but said, "If the season started today, we'd be fired up about the guys in that room."

Adofo-Mensah added that the team heavily researched Howell before the 2022 draft, three months after he and coach Kevin O'Connell had been hired. Ultimately, Howell was selected in the fifth round by the Washington Commanders.

"We didn't think in that first year together when Kevin and I got together, that was the right time in our journey to make such an investment," Adofo-Mensah said. "We say a lot that organizations fail quarterbacks long before quarterbacks fail organizations, and we didn't want to be one of those, the reasons why somebody didn't [succeed], because we weren't ready. We weren't in the right place to do that type of thing.

"And so, we didn't think that was the right time. But he was ... a pure talent and all those other things we talk about, he was high up on our board but just didn't think it was the right time and place. And sometimes that happens in life, that maybe a person you're dating is not the right time and place, but then later on in life it happens at a better time."

Seahawks general manager John Schneider said Saturday that conversations with the Vikings about a potential Howell trade began at the league meetings that wrapped up earlier this month. The Seahawks had met with Drew Lock during their trip to South Florida and were considering bringing him back.

They signed him two weeks later as the presumed No. 2 quarterback behind Sam Darnold.

A Howell trade then seemed inevitable once Seattle drafted Jalen Milroe in the third round Friday night. With former Viking Jaren Hall also in the mix, taking Milroe with the 92nd overall pick gave the Seahawks five quarterbacks.

"And then we liked the quarterbacks in the draft and we thought there was a chance that might happen," Schneider said. "There were several teams that were interested and Minnesota was the team that ended up pulling the trigger."

Vikings senior vice president of player personnel Ryan Grigson noted that Howell started all 17 games for the Commanders in 2023 and is only 24 years old.

"It's an opportunity that is not usually that easy to come by when you have that type of youth and that type of experience," Grigson said.

McCarthy opened the Vikings' offseason program last week with no limitations from the torn right meniscus he suffered during the 2024 preseason that caused him to miss his entire rookie year. The Vikings have stopped short of naming McCarthy their starter for 2025, but Adofo-Mensah said last month that it's "the outcome we want" and "the outcome we're headed towards."

The Vikings bid farewell to three quarterbacks who were on their roster last season -- Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones and Nick Mullens -- although they had hoped to sign Jones as McCarthy's likely backup. Jones decided instead to sign with the Indianapolis Colts, in part on the assumption that McCarthy will almost certainly be the Vikings' starter.

That led the Vikings to spend several days in serious internal discussions about the possibility of signing free agent Aaron Rodgers, who had expressed interest during a phone call with O'Connell. Ultimately, the Vikings decided to put those talks on hold and allow McCarthy to maximize the team's reps during offseason practices.

O'Connell said last week that the team had a "pretty detailed plan" for adding depth behind and around McCarthy and Rypien and mentioned the possibility of a trade. Howell was a relatively inexpensive acquisition, as the pick swap simply required the Vikings to move down 30 spots in the fifth round.

Drafting Milroe and trading Howell continues the remake of the Seahawks' quarterback room. They traded starter Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders in March before signing Darnold as his replacement, giving the former No. 2 overall pick a three-year, $100.5 million contract on the heels of his Pro Bowl season with the Vikings. Seattle then signed Lock to a two-year, $5 million deal, bringing back Smith's former backup to fill the same role behind Darnold.

Seattle acquired Howell in a March 2024 trade with the Commanders, giving up third- and fifth-round selections for the quarterback and picks in the fourth and sixth rounds. The Seahawks beat out three other teams that were also negotiating with the Commanders, a source told ESPN at the time.

Howell struggled badly in a relief appearance for Smith in December. After Smith hurt his knee midway through the third quarter of a 30-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers, Howell completed five of 14 attempts for 24 yards and an interception.

A fifth-round pick by Washington in 2022, Howell threw for 21 touchdowns and a league-high 21 interceptions in 2023. He also led the NFL with 612 attempts, completing 63.4% of them while throwing for 3,946 yards. The Commanders went 4-13, traded Howell to Seattle and drafted Jayden Daniels second overall.