Seahawks expected to announce re-signing of Geno Smith to join post-Russell Wilson derby
For three years, Geno Smith has been Russell Wilson’s backup. His only chance to play came when Wilson got hurt.
Now Smith is coming back to Seattle for a fourth season — with the prime chance to replace Wilson.
Drew Lock now has experienced competition in the job to replace Wilson as the Seahawks’ starting quarterback.
After trying to for more than a month, Seattle is expected to re-sign Smith to a one-year contract, a league source told The News Tribune Thursday.
Multiple reports, including by CBS Sports’ Josina Anderson, said Smith’s deal with Seattle was done.
The veteran and former New York Jets starter replaced Wilson for three games last season, following Wilson’s finger surgery. Smith went 1-2 starting more games than he had since 2014, his second NFL season with the Jets.
The Seahawks acquired Lock, 25, from Denver in their big trade of Wilson to the Broncos last month. Lock is 8-13 as a starter over parts of his first three NFL seasons.
Smith was Wilson’s backup in the 2019, ‘20 and ‘21 seasons. He is 13-21 as an NFL starter, including 12-18 in four seasons with the Jets.
Coach Pete Carroll has been saying since at the league’s scouting combine in early March the Seahawks wanted to re-sign the 31-year-old Smith. It took a while because Smith could ask to be paid more than Seattle’s paid him the last three seasons, because this year he finally has a realistic chance to be the team’s full-time starter.
Smith’s latest, incentive-filled agreement with the Seahawks is worth up to $7 million for 2022, according to ESPN.
That’s if he maximizes playing-time bonuses. It’s a huge jump from the basically veteran-minimum $1,075,000 the team paid him to back up Wilson again in 2021.
Smith will compete with Lock and Jacob Eason for the job to replace Wilson as Seattle’s starter in 2022.
Eason is a former University of Washington quarterback from Lake Stevens. He has yet to start an NFL game.
Experience is the advantage Smith has over Eason and Lock.
“Oh, I like Geno, a lot,” Carroll said last month at the combine in Indianapolis. “You know, he’s really valuable to us, really valuable, and he can play, and I don’t have any question that he can go in the game and play at a really high level.
“So we’ll let them all battle it out. It’ll always be the competition, though, and we’ll see what happens.”
Smith posted on his Twitter account online Thursday morning: “Like fine wine baby Get better with time” and an emoji of a glass of red wine.
In January, the Washington State Patrol arrested Smith on suspicion of driving under the influence after a patrolman said Smith was driving 96 mph east of Seattle. Smith reportedly told an officer he had been drinking wine earlier that Sunday evening, after he and the Seahawks had returned home from their season-ending win at Arizona Jan. 9.
Carroll said last month of Smith’s legal situation from that incident: “I think it’s going to run its course and everything should be worked out” by the start of the 2022 season.
It’s also possible the Seahawks will have a rookie quarterback join the competition between now and when offseason workouts begin on the field next month.
The Seahawks this week were hosting quarterback Desmond Ridder from the University of Cincinnati. Ridder was one of the 30 prospect visits at team headquarters Seattle is allowed before this month’s draft. He’s the first quarterback prospect known to visit the Seahawks for the 2022 draft.
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 11:21 AM.
