The Seahawks currently have some familiar names on their depth chart behind quarterback Russell Wilson.
Assuming they don’t want to keep both Geno Smith and Paxton Lynch, the XFL may offer the odd man out a soft place to land.
Commissioner Oliver Luck told Greg Auman of TheAthletic.com that the Seahawks competition was one of the ones the league would be keeping an eye on as they tried to find eight starters.
“We’re watching the backup quarterback camp battles,” Luck said. “One of these guys is going to get cut. There’s a bunch of those going on. We might not get all of those guys, the quote-unquote loser of those, but a Geno or Paxton is not going to end up on a practice squad. There are a bunch of 3-4-5-year guys that are in that boat. They’ve been on rosters, practice squad, been yo-yo’d two years. They need to play, and that’s my argument to them, that it’s very doable here.”
Luck was at West Virginia when Smith was good there, so perhaps he’s been struck by nostalgia. But he also knows that finding eight decent quarterbacks will be critical, or at least eight interesting quarterbacks.
Whether Smith or Lynch qualify as either remains to be seen, but Luck is well aware of the challenge. They’ve looked at some strays like Ryan Mallett and Landry Jones, and will continue to look under every rock.