Seahawks make official the re-signing of Geno Smith to possibly replace Russell Wilson
It’s official: Geno Smith has entered the Seahawks quarterback derby.
The backup to Russell Wilson the last three seasons officially re-signed with Seattle, the team announced Tuesday.
It’s a one-year, incentive-heavy deal. A league source first told The News Tribune of it last week.
The team made the announcement on the first day of its offseason workout program. The Seahawks have two weeks of weight lifting and rehabilitation work in the training room before the second offseason phase, workouts on a field.
The 31-year-old Smith gets $3.5 million in base salary, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. He could earn an additional $3.5 million in bonuses. That is if he wins the job to replace the traded Wilson.
Smith is 13-21 as a starter in his nine-year NFL career. He went 1-2 last season replacing Wilson after Wilson’s first missed games of his career because of surgery on his finger in October. Those were Smith’s first starts since 2017. He started one game late that season for the New York Giants.
Smith did not play a snap backing up Wilson during the Seahawks’ 2019 season. He played 18 snaps late in one game for the team in 2020.
Smith was the New York Jets’ starter in 2013 and ‘14.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said since early March re-signing Smith was a priority. Carroll believed Smith played nearly perfectly in leading the Seahawks to a 31-7 win at home over Jacksonville Oct. 31. He completed 20 of 24 passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns that day in his third start for the injured Wilson. Wilson returned to start Seattle’s next game.
It took a while to get him re-signed because Smith asked to be paid more than Seattle’s paid him the last three seasons (just over $1 million last year). He wanted to be paid this year for finally having a realistic chance to be the team’s full-time starter.
He will compete with fourth-year veteran Drew Lock to be Seattle’s quarterback. The Seahawks acquired the 24-year-old Lock, Denver’s former second-round draft choice, in the trade of Wilson to the Broncos last month.
Jacob Eason is a third, more unlikely candidate. The former University of Washington passer from Lake Stevens has yet to start an NFL game.
“Oh, I like Geno, a lot,” Carroll said last month at the league’s scouting 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.”
The Seahawks are considering whether to draft a quarterback for the third time in Carroll’s and general manager John Schneider’s 12 years running the team. Seattle last week hosted quarterback Desmond Ridder from the University of Cincinnati.
Ridder was one of the 30 prospect visits at team headquarters Seattle is allowed before the draft that begins April 28. He’s the first quarterback prospect known to visit the Seahawks for the 2022 draft.
Smith posted online on his Twitter account Tuesday upon the Seahawks announcing his new contract: “Lets get to WORK”
In January, the Washington State Patrol arrested Smith on suspicion of driving under the influence after a trooper 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.
This story was originally published April 19, 2022 at 12:05 PM.
