Seattle Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks are entering a new era in 2022, but not in a good way.

The last vestige of the team's "Legion of Boom" defense was sent packing this offseason when the Seahawks released inside linebacker Bobby Wagner. They also traded the quarterback who led the team to the only Super Bowl win in franchise history, dealing Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos for a package headlined by two first-round picks.

Broncos quarterback Drew Lock was shipped to Seattle as part of that deal, and Lock and Geno Smith are set to battle for the right to open the season as the team's starter against the Broncos in the first Monday night affair of 2022.

That duo combines to form a morass of mediocrity (on a good day) that leaves the Seahawks with arguably the worst quarterback situation in the entire National Football League. A deficiency at the game's most important position that all but dooms the team to a miserable 2022 campaign. A weakness that more than a few people are surprised the team made no real effort to bolster in the offseason.

But while having Smith and/or Lock take the snaps this season may be painful in the short term, in the long term, an argument can be made that it's the right play for the franchise.

Like it or not, the Seahawks are in the opening stages of a ground-up rebuild. And sometimes, ripping the bandage off is less painful than peeling it away slowly.

Now, don't tell head coach Pete Carroll that. Carroll insisted all the way back before the draft that there is no rebuild in the Emerald City.

Carroll told Mike Salk of Seattle Sports 710 AM (via Liz Mathews of Seahawks Wire):

"It's the challenge, it's the excitement, it's the newness. The sense of the return to the core of where we began putting things together, where we really were wide open and really aggressive and all. As time goes, you get kind of connected to the salary cap and the cash cap and all that—you get slowed down a little bit, you don't have as much freedom. So we feel the freedom of the draft picks, we feel the freedom of the financial situation, and the excitement of putting our team together again."

The team has also been shining up its quarterback competition. Veteran wideout Tyler Lockett praised Smith's performance in OTAs.

"Being able to come in and know you can run the team and him coming in in OTAs, I mean, he has that fire in his eyes," Lockett told reporters. "He has that look to be able to go out there and do great. I mean, he hasn't had the opportunity to play in a couple years. When you have that opportunity right in front of you, what else do you need, you know what I mean? This is an opportunity that all of us wait for."

Of course, Lockett also had good things to say about Lock.

"He can throw the ball, y'all were out here today, he makes great throws," Lockett said. "He just has that type of calmness about himself to where he knows what he can do, he's making the throws regardless of where the DB is. He had a couple of really great deep ball throws last week before we had this break. I think he's adjusting really well."

Even in a time of year when every report is glowing, that's laying it on pretty thick.

Long story short, neither Smith nor Lock is a good NFL starter. Or even a capable NFL starter. In three starts last year in place of an injured Wilson, Smith topped 200 passing yards in a game all of once. After Lock won four of five starts as a rookie, his play went off a cliff. He has completed less than 60 percent of his career passes and tied for the league lead in interceptions in 2020 with 15.

Neither quarterback has a career passer rating of at least 80 or a completion percentage of 60. Combined, the duo is 21-34 as a starter in the pros.

Whether it's Smith or Lock doesn't matter. With either under center, the Seahawks are a last-place team.

The thing is, that last-place finish may have been unavoidable.

It's not like the team's quarterback of the future was available in 2022 anyway. Trading Wilson just to mortgage the picks gained (and then some) on Deshaun Watson would have been…confusing. A trade for Baker Mayfield would put Seattle on the hook for quite a bit of cash to essentially rent a quarterback who, while once the No. 1 overall pick, is in the last year of his rookie deal and possibly not that big of an upgrade over Lock and Smith.

Even if Mayfield is better, it's no certainty that he's "lead the franchise into a new day" better. There's been speculation galore that Mayfield could wind up out west, but while appearing on The Ryen Russillo Podcast, ESPN's Dianna Russini refuted that speculation.

"The Seahawks have been telling me from day one they have no interest in Baker Mayfield," Russini said. "They're riding Drew Lock. … That's their choice."

Seattle also passed on adding a quarterback in this year's draft. But again, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. There wasn't a signal-caller worth the ninth overall pick Seattle got from Denver, and given that Pitt's Kenny Pickett was the only quarterback taken in the first two rounds, the general consensus among NFL teams appears to have been that this year's class was underwhelming.

The class of 2023 is another story.

Finally, it's not like any quarterback realistically available to the Seahawks in 2022 would take this team anywhere. All three of the other teams in the NFC West made the postseason in 2021. Two made the NFC Championship Game. And the Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl.

The Seahawks have a pair of excellent receivers in Lockett and DK Metcalf, depth in the backfield and a solid duo of safeties. But the team also had the lowest-ranked offensive line in the division last year, according to Pro Football Focus, and a bottom-five defense that managed just 34 sacks in 2021.

There's a reason why the Seahawks hadn't made it past the divisional round since losing Super Bowl XLIX. Quarterback isn't the only position on the roster that needs work—work that started with the selection of offensive tackle Charles Cross with the ninth overall pick in 2022.

At 70 years old, Carroll is the oldest active head coach in the league. The odds that he'll be able to guide the team through a prolonged rebuild are slim. The Seahawks need a way to kick-start the process. Speed things up. And the best way to do that is with one of next year's top quarterback prospects.

To do that, Seattle needs one of two things: a high pick of their own or a high-ish one they can combine with Denver's first-rounder in 2023. If there's one thing Smith and Lock have a legitimate shot at doing in 2022, it's losing games.

Cynics might call it tanking, but it's actually sound strategy—bottoming out and then bouncing back as opposed to year after year of mediocrity or being a fringe playoff team with one postseason win over the last four seasons.

So steady yourselves, "12s." (Hey! That rhymes!) The 2022 season is going to sting.

But a sharp pain that comes and goes quickly beats a dull ache that drags on for years.

Former Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch said he didn't have much of an interaction with head coach Pete Carroll after the interception at the end of Super Bowl XLIX that clinched the championship for the New England Patriots.

In one of the most memorable plays in Super Bowl history, the Seahawks had the ball at the Pats' one-yard line down by four with 24 seconds left. Instead of handing the ball to Lynch, Seattle called a Russell Wilson pass, which was intercepted by Malcolm Butler.

Actor Kevin Hart asked Lynch about the immediate aftermath of that play on the Cold as Balls episode released Tuesday (8:50 mark of video).

"I come off the sideline, and in my mind, I'm confused," Lynch said. "And I'm walking by Pete, I'm just laughing at him like, 'Bro, what the...'"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQZObPme23Q?

Lynch joked he got over the disappointment by meeting singer Lenny Kravitz, who performed alongside Katy Perry during the Super Bowl halftime show, and then having a party with his entire family that included a delivery of 76 12-bottle Hennessy cases.

The Seahawks were trying to win their second straight Super Bowl title after beating the Denver Broncos to close out the 2013 season. They've made the playoffs five times in the seven years since that heartbreaking loss but have never returned to the Super Bowl.

Carroll accepted responsibility for the play-calling mistake in the aftermath of the loss.

"I told those guys, 'That's my fault, totally,'" Carroll said. "But we had plenty of time to win the game ... we were playing for third and fourth down, give them no time left ... but didn't work out that way."

Lynch last played in 2019 but hasn't formally announced his retirement.

The Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks reportedly "still haven't ruled out" a trade for Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield before the 2022 NFL season.

Jeff Howe of The Athletic reported Friday the situation has been stuck in a "holding pattern" while the Panthers and Seahawks wait to see whether the Browns become more willing to retain a "much greater portion" of Mayfield's $18.9 million salary than offered so far.

Cleveland put itself in a difficult position in March when it completed a blockbuster trade with the Houston Texans to acquire Deshaun Watson without finding a new home for Mayfield.

The Browns also signed Jacoby Brissett and Joshua Dobbs to fill the reserve roles, and they added undrafted rookie Felix Harper as a developmental option after his strong showing during the team's recent minicamp.

So interested teams realize Cleveland would prefer not to pay a backup in a crowded QB room nearly $19 million, and they're trying to leverage that into the Browns eating a sizable portion of that amount.

The contract's structure also doesn't help because the Browns would receive no salary-cap relief if Mayfield is released, but every dollar not retained in a trade would represent savings under the cap, which is why the trade route is strongly preferred.

Cleveland isn't against retaining some salary, but it wants the "contractual intake to be commensurate with the asset they receive in return," per Howe. In other words, if it keeps more money in the deal it wants a better return, likely in the form of a higher draft pick.

Both the Panthers and Seahawks could benefit from an upgrade at quarterback for 2022.

Carolina drafted Matt Corral in the third round last month, but he's coming out of a mostly single-read offense at Ole Miss. A year on the sideline learning to read NFL defenses and adjusting to multiple-read offensive concepts would aid his development.

In turn, the Panthers could be staring down another year of Sam Darnold and P.J. Walker, who combined to throw 10 touchdowns and 16 interceptions last season.

Seattle is heading toward a quarterback competition between Drew Lock, Geno Smith and Jacob Eason. It's unlikely any of them are the long-term answer following the departure of Russell Wilson.

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll downplayed the idea of the team making a deal for another QB, though.

"I don't see us making a trade for anybody at all. I don't see that happening," Carroll told reporters in early May. "But we're certainly going to continue to be open to chances to help our club, and meanwhile we're just going to be battling and competing our tails off. There's always possibilities, so we keep open to that."

There aren't any other obvious potential trade partners for Cleveland, and the San Francisco 49ers' Jimmy Garoppolo is another veteran signal-caller who could be on the move before the season gets underway in September, which crowds the market.

So the Browns may have no choice beyond keeping a significant portion of Mayfield's salary if they want to get a deal done.

Tell everyone you're tanking without actually saying you're tanking. 

The Seattle Seahawks have done just that with their commitment to Drew Lock as their starting quarterback for the 2022 campaign, though the approach isn't without merit.

Essentially, the team invested in a lottery ticket as part of the Russell Wilson deal. If it works out, the Seahawks will be ahead of the curve. If not, they can look to the 2023 NFL draft and reinvest in the quarterback position. Meanwhile, they can get back to basics without worrying what may or may not upset Wilson. 

Lock, whom the Denver Broncos selected in the second round of the 2019 draft, still has upside. 

"I think he'd have been the first guy picked [in 2022], of quarterbacks anyway" Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said of Lock during an interview on Sports Radio KJR (h/t Pro Football Talk's Michael David Smith). "He'd have been the first guy in this draft. I don't have any hesitation saying that." 

Yes, everyone can hear some snickering after reading that statement. But Carroll isn't necessarily wrong. Lock is only 25 and less than two years older than Kenny Pickett, whom the Pittsburgh Steelers chose as the top quarterback in this year's draft with the 20th overall pick. No other incoming quarterback prospect heard his name called before the third round. 

"The first look at Drew, he's really athletic. He's really a confident athlete. You can see he's got a lot of body control. He's got quick feet. He's got a quick arm. He's got various ways he can release the football as his body's in different positions," Carroll explained. "He's got a real knack there. He's got a strong arm. He can throw the ball a mile down the field. ... He has a world-class arm, and all that."

It was smart for Seattle to pass on this year's quarterback class. Too many questions swirled about the group.

"You don't draft a bad quarterback for the positional value," an executive told The Athletic's Mike Sando. "You can take a year and see what you've got. Do you trade everything for a quarterback next year? Yeah, if it is the right one. That is something they have to figure out."

Instead, general manager John Schneider began rebuilding the foundation after it had eroded. With Wilson and linebacker Bobby Wagner no longer with the franchise, the Legion of Boom era can officially be put to rest. The Seahawks are now built around wide receivers DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett and safety Jamal Adams. 

The incoming rookies have exciting upside with strong pedigrees. 

This year's ninth overall pick, offensive tackle Charles Cross, immediately fills a premium position with an elite talent. While Alabama's Evan Neal and North Carolina State's Ikem Ekwonu received more attention throughout the predraft process, Cross was generally considered in the same tier as a legitimate top-10 talent.

The Seahawks paired Cross with fellow rookie Abraham Lucas, whom they drafted with the 72nd overall pick. The four-year starter at right tackle has allowed the second-lowest pressure rate since the start of the 2020 campaign, per Pro Football Focus (h/t Smart Football's Adam Carter). 

Schneider took a similar approach with two other premium positions and doubled down at cornerback and edge defender.

The second-round selection of Boye Mafe should give the defense more juice in the pass rush, while Tyreke Smith provides extra depth. Corner is more interesting because fourth-rounder Coby Bryant is the reigning Jim Thorpe Award winner and a sound, aggressive defender, whereas Tariq Woolen, who fell to the fifth round, has a similar background and traits to Richard Sherman as a bigger corner who converted from wide receiver.  

An emphasis on those positions, particularly on defense, coupled with the second-round selection of running back Kenneth Walker III portends a throwback approach by Carroll and Co. 

A mistake could be thinking that Lock is anything more than a placeholder until he proves otherwise. As a result, the Seahawks should once again be a run-first team, and they have the backfield to make it happen with a returning Chris Carson, re-signed Rashaad Penny and the newly acquired Walker. 

"If Rashaad Penny can continue what he did late in the year, and now they have Walker, you know, with that quarterback situation, what's going to happen," an NFC coordinator told ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. "Those guys are going to get the ball a ton."

And they should.

Carson is a proven 1,000-yard ball-carrier when healthy, though he's coming off neck surgery. Penny finally looked like a first-round back when he ran for 671 yards over the Seahawks' final five games last season. Walker, meanwhile, is the most explosive back from this year's class. His 1,168 yards after contact in 2021 were the most by a Power Five running back since the 2019 campaign, per Pro Football Focus. 

Considering the aforementioned youth at key positions, the team's incomplete roster and the uncertainty under center, the Seahawks aren't positioned to surpass the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals, let alone dethrone the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, in the NFC West. 

An eye should be toward the future. 

"Their fascination with Drew Lock feels like a contrarian, 'Hey, we are going to win running the ball and our evaluation of Drew Lock was right,'" an executive told Sando. "Only a Super Bowl-winning coach who has tenure and is feeling secure can do that. This will either be the greatest 'I told you so' or it could be, 'Hey, you know what, I gave it a great run, and no one is going to remember this part when it is said and done anyway.'"

Only a lights-out season by Lock could and should sway the Seahawks from going in another direction next offseason. Granted, the team may still entertain the possibility of a Baker Mayfield trade, but he doesn't change the math when it comes to Seattle's current setup since the 2018 No. 1 overall pick isn't under contract after this season. 

"I don't see us making a trade for anybody at all. I don't see that happening," Carroll told Sports Radio 93.3 KJR-FM last week (h/t ESPN's Brady Henderson). "But we're certainly going to continue to be open to chances to help our club, and meanwhile, we're just going to be battling and competing our tails off."

The coach also said that Seattle had "no intention" of trading Wilson about two weeks before that occurred. Still, the Seahawks won't take on much, if any, of Mayfield's deal based on their financial standing. 

Seattle has $12 million in salary-cap space before it signs its rookie class. The rest can be rolled into the 2023 season when the franchise is projected to have the fifth-most salary-cap space at $62.9 million, per Spotrac.

Carroll and Schneider will also enter the next draft cycle with a pair of first- and second-round selections. They can use one of those picks or package a group of selections to acquire a quarterback in a class that already looks much stronger than the most recent iteration. The Seahawks can make a play for Ohio State's C.J. Stroud, Alabama's Bryce Young, Kentucky's Will Levis or whoever else works his way to the top of the draft. 

Seattle has never won fewer than seven games in any season with Carroll as head coach. A pair of seven-win campaigns predated Wilson's arrival as a third-round rookie in 2012. The Seahawks are back to where they started. They're searching for a quarterback, and they'll try to grind out wins and take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.

In other words, they are dipping into the tank once again and hoping to come out of it with another big fish. 

                          

Brent Sobleski covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @brentsobleski.

Until last year, the Seattle Seahawks were all linebacker K.J. Wright knew about the NFL.

Seattle drafted him in the fourth round in 2011, and he played for the NFC West team through the 2020 campaign. While he was a member of the Las Vegas Raiders in 2021, he told Trey Wingo on the Half-Forgotten History podcast that he prefers to "go back home" and play for the Seahawks again.

"I love K.J.," Seattle head coach Pete Carroll said when asked about Wright's comments, per Brady Henderson of ESPN. "I've already talked to him about stuff for the future and all that. I did hear that he talked about playing and we've already talked about that."

Wright didn't stop there and continued, saying, "I think it's that simple. Seattle knows that I want to come back. They know how much they mean to me."

Despite the linebacker's decision to not hold back his true feelings and the apparent conversations he had with Carroll, Henderson suggested the Seahawks will likely use the younger Jordyn Brooks and Cody Barton as their starting inside linebackers in 2022.

A shift toward younger players on defense has been something of a trend of late, as Seattle released Bobby Wagner this offseason and elected against re-signing Wright last offseason. Wagner is a franchise icon as an eight-time Pro Bowler and six-time All-Pro, but that didn't even sway the front office during what could be something of a rebuild after going 7-10 in 2021.

Wright may not be quite the legend that Wagner is, but he still has the fourth-most tackles in franchise history and helped the team win a Super Bowl during the 2013 campaign.

The Mississippi State product was a 2016 Pro Bowler and has five seasons with more than 100 tackles on his resume. 

The 32-year-old took a step back production-wise in his one season with the Raiders with 51 tackles and seemed to hint retirement may be an option if the Seahawks choose not to re-sign him ahead of the 2022 campaign.

"Last year I left, went to Vegas by myself," Wright said. "My family didn't come with me. I'm not doing that again. I don't think I'm going to move my family anywhere else across the country, so if it's not Seattle, then I'll be content."        

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said new quarterback Drew Lock would have been the first QB selected in the 2022 NFL draft.

"I think he'd have been the first guy picked, of quarterbacks anyway. He'd have been the first guy in this draft. I don't have any hesitation saying that," Carroll said Thursday on Sports Radio KJR (via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk).

The Seahawks acquired Lock from the Denver Broncos as part of the blockbuster deal that ended Russell Wilson's 10-year tenure in Seattle.

Lock, a 2019 second-round pick, failed to impress across three years in Denver. He completed 59.3 percent of his throws with 25 touchdowns and 20 interceptions in 24 games. He received a poor 60 overall grade from Pro Football Focus in 2021.

Even in a lackluster 2022 quarterback class, which featured Kenny Pickett as the only signal-caller taken in the first two rounds, it's hard to know whether Lock would have sat atop the rankings.

Here's the comparison between Lock and Pickett in their final college season (13 games each):

• Lock (2018 with Missouri): 62.9% completion rate, 3,498 passing yards, 28 TD, 8 INT
• Pickett (2021 with Pitt): 67.2% completion rate, 4,319 passing yards, 42 TD, 7 INT

A lot more than one year of stats goes into quarterback evaluation, but it's just one aspect of the conversation that shows Lock wouldn't have been the clear No. 1 option in this year's draft.

Regardless, Carroll explained on KJR he's impressed with what he's seen from the 25-year-old offseason arrival:

The first look at Drew: He's really athletic, he's really a confident athlete. You can see he's got a lot of body control. He's got quick feet, he's got a quick arm, he's got various ways he can release the football as his body's in different positions. He's got a real knack there. He's got a strong arm; he can throw the ball a mile down the field. He compares to Geno, and Geno Smith has a great arm. He has a world-class arm and all that. To match up with that, that's saying a lot.

As the Seahawks roster currently stands, a quarterback competition between Lock, Smith and Jacob Eason is probably on tap for training camp.

It wouldn't be a surprise if Seattle adds another veteran to the mix at some point, though Carroll ruled out a potential trade at the position.

Seattle Seahawks rookie cornerback Coby Bryant is paying homage to his namesake.

Bryant is set to wear the No. 8 for the Seahawks this season in honor of NBA legend and Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant, whom he was named after.

Rookie CB Coby Bryant, who was named after the NBA legend, will wear #8 for the Seahawks 🙌 pic.twitter.com/FUZ5sGbz71

— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) May 6, 2022

The Seahawks selected Bryant with a fourth-round pick (109th overall) in last month's draft. The Cincinnati product won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's top defensive back during his senior season while playing opposite Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner, who was drafted No. 4 overall by the New York Jets.

Bryant, who was nicknamed "Red Mamba" by his Cincinnati teammates, finished his college career with nine interceptions and 35 passes defended over four seasons with the Bearcats. After getting drafted, he explained how being named after a legendary sports figure has motivated him.

"Not really pressure, more of a privilege, honestly," Bryant said. "It just means I have to work twice as hard to live up to that name and set a name for myself as well too and, most importantly, represent him as well as I can."

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said he was impressed with Bryant's football skills as well as his leadership traits.

"It's rare to get a guy that was chosen as the best DB in the country. It doesn't happen very often ... But that's pretty cool," Carroll said. "It's because Coby is such a good football player, just all-around. He can do it all. He's big and strong, really aware leader on that team, on a championship club and a really good playmaker."

An Austin, Texas, judge filed a felony warrant for the arrest of former Seattle Seahawks and University of Texas safety Earl Thomas last month.

According to Ryan Autullo of the Austin American-Statesman, it is alleged that Thomas violated an order of protection by sending a woman threatening text messages about her and her children.

Thomas has been charged with a third-degree felony for allegedly violating the protective order two or more times within a one-year span.

Per Autullo, Thomas' lawyer and agent Trey Dolezal said the warrant stems from Thomas reaching out to his estranged wife about seeing their kids.

Regarding the warrant, Dolezal said: "They were consciously and collectively working together to see his kids. I don't really understand how he could be in violation by working together to visit with his children."

In the arrest affidavit, it is alleged that Thomas has refused to communicate with his estranged wife through a co-parenting app, which is required under the order of protection. Thomas allegedly texted her directly and approached her in person, which is in violation of the protection order. 

Police also produced text messages alleged to be from Thomas to his estranged wife on April 18 and 19.

On April 18, police said Thomas texted a photo of two handguns and wrote, "Waiting on hand in foot is why I'll kick ur ass."

Then, on April 19, Thomas allegedly texted, "I hope u in the car with him and the kids and yall drive off the road," followed by, "Ima let my momma and my cousins poison they [their children] ass."

Thomas' estranged wife, Nina, was arrested in May 2020 for allegedly pointing a gun at Thomas' head after finding him with another woman. Nina filed for divorce in November 2020.

Thomas, who turns 33 on Saturday, spent 10 seasons in the NFL from 2010 to 2019. His first nine seasons were as a member of the Seahawks and the final one was with the Baltimore Ravens.

He is a seven-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro, who won a Super Bowl with Seattle at the conclusion of the 2013 season.

The 2010 No. 14 overall pick in the 2010 NFL draft has registered 713 tackles, 30 interceptions, 71 passes defended and 12 forced fumbles in 140 career regular-season games.

Thomas has not played since getting released by the Ravens prior to the 2020 season after punching teammate Chuck Clark during practice.

Despite his long absence from the NFL, Thomas told ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter (h/t ESPN's Jamison Hensley) last month that he wants to return to the league, saying: "I'm ready. I'm in shape. My timing is on point—I'm proud of that."

It is unclear if Thomas has had any discussions with NFL teams about potentially signing a contract.

Despite the warrant for Thomas' arrest being filed last month, he has neither been arrested nor turned himself in.

The NFL announced Wednesday its first regular-season game in Germany will feature Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers taking on DK Metcalf and the Seattle Seahawks on Nov. 13.

The @Seahawks and @Buccaneers will play in the first-ever regular season game in Germany! @NFLDeutschland

Sunday Nov. 13, 9:30am ET on @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/S4foLsG9cN

— NFL (@NFL) May 4, 2022

Meanwhile, here's a look at the three-game London schedule:

London Calling!

The NFL is heading back to London for three games in 2022! @NFLUK pic.twitter.com/dB0zRjtePN

— NFL (@NFL) May 4, 2022

Finally, the San Francisco 49ers were announced as the Arizona Cardinals' opponent for this year's game in Mexico City:

An NFC West showdown in Mexico City.

The @49ers and @AZCardinals will meet in Mexico on Nov. 21 on ESPN! @nflmx @NFLEspanol pic.twitter.com/WQw00HBJbW

— NFL (@NFL) May 4, 2022

Germany will become the fourth country outside the U.S. to host a regular-season NFL game, joining Canada, England and Mexico.

London and Mexico City are active members of the NFL's International Series, while Toronto hosted six Buffalo Bills regular-season games from 2008 through 2013 as part of an agreement with the team.

This season's game in Germany will take place at Allianz Arena in Munich. Future games will also be contested at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt.

"We are very pleased to welcome Munich and Frankfurt to the NFL family and are excited to reward our fans in Germany for their passion by bringing them the spectacle of regular-season NFL football," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in February.

London has hosted at least one game every season since 2007, aside from 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The schedule has increased in recent years to include as many as four games in one year (2017), with most campaigns featuring two or three games in the UK.

Mexico City returns to the schedule in 2022 after a two-year hiatus. Mexico's capital hosted one game each season from 2016 through 2019.

Here's a look at some of the reaction from teams taking part in this year's international games:

pic.twitter.com/v2mGkFc3Px

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) May 4, 2022

Week 4 in London is going to be special.

Can't wait to see you there.

🇬🇧: https://t.co/fnK46zgykV pic.twitter.com/hITs1yU8M5

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) May 4, 2022

Get your passports ready 😏

𝗪𝗘'𝗥𝗘 𝗚𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗢 𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗗𝗢𝗡 🇬🇧: https://t.co/SxQ6PTQwld pic.twitter.com/ty5nhwWuzA

— New York Giants (@Giants) May 4, 2022

The matchup is set!

See you in London, @Giants 🏈🇬🇧#GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/HFHpY0839C

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) May 4, 2022

“#BroncosCountry is everywhere and the best way to grow our game — and reach fans all over the world — is by playing internationally.”

GM George Paton on playing in London: pic.twitter.com/ruQktfXqb6

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) May 4, 2022

The complete 2022 NFL schedule will be released May 12.

Don't expect DK Metcalf to join the ever-growing list of star receivers to exit their franchises this offseason.

The Seahawks wideout said he expects to work out a long-term contract to stay in Seattle soon during an appearance on Shannon Sharpe's Club Shay Shay podcast.

"We're gonna get something done. I think I'm gonna be in Seattle for the next coming years," Mecalf said (7:20 mark).

Metcalf, 24, is set to make $4 million next season in the final year of his rookie contract. The 2020 All-Pro and the Seahawks have been engaged in contract extension talks throughout the offseason but have not gotten anything on paper.

Meanwhile, the entire landscape of wide receivers across the NFL has shifted. Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill, A.J. Brown and Marquise Brown were all traded in deals that included 2022 first-round picks. Adams, Hill and Brown all received new, nine-figure contracts; Brown is almost certain to get his own big-money deal sooner than later.

The Seahawks themselves added a first-round pick as part of a deal that sent Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos. Despite the upheaval across the NFL this offseason, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has been adamant that Metcalf is here to stay. 

"It's really important to us," Carroll told reporters of signing Metcalf to an extension. "We'll kick it into [general manager] John [Schneider's] court here in the weeks to come after the draft. We're really communicating great and DK, we've been on a great wavelength to move forward. Hopefully, this will all work out. We don't plan on him going anywhere. We want him to be with us."

Metcalf has recorded 216 receptions for 3,170 yards and 29 touchdowns over his first three NFL seasons. He's also been remarkably healthy, playing in all 47 of his possible NFL games.

The Seahawks avoided a full-scale rebuild of their offense this season, keeping Metcalf and Tyler Lockett while expressing faith that either Geno Smith or Drew Lock could get the job done at quarterback. Metcalf told Sharpe he has faith in the current depth chart at quarterback, particularly noting Smith's confidence has been boosted since his arrival in Seattle.

"Everybody thinks about 'what if' or different scenarios," Metcalf said. "But, at the end of the day, when you sit down and make a grown man decision, 'Yeah, I wanna be in Seattle,' with whoever is throwing. ... I don't have control of who's back there at quarterback. I'm just gonna be out there and winning my reps on Sunday."