The Seattle Seahawks have acquired Sam Howell in a trade with the Washington Commanders that also involved 2024 draft picks.

The Seahawks received Howell, a fourth-round draft pick (No. 102 overall) and a sixth-rounder (No. 179) in exchange for picks in the third (No. 78) and fifth (No. 152) rounds. 

Seattle general manager John Schneider said "several" other teams were involved in possibly trading for Howell and that Seattle is acquiring him to be Geno Smith's backup - not to compete with Smith for the starting job.

"He had a great day against us this past fall," Schneider told Seattle Sports 710-AM. "He's a quarterback but he's really a football player. That's what I love about him. Really tough, young. He's 23 years old and has 18 starts in the league already. He's the same age as like [Jayden] Daniels from LSU and [Spencer] Rattler and [Michael] Penix [Jr.], and he's a year younger than Bo Nix.

"We were just really excited to be able to acquire him. We know he's a serious dude. He's into it, he works his tail off. We got great reviews on him and we loved him coming out of college. So yeah, we're happy to get him in the mix. Geno's the guy and Sam will be backing him up."