Special-teams ace Nick Bellore latest Seahawks veteran to re-sign. Is Geno Smith next?
The Seahawks have re-signed one of their popular leaders.
It’s not Geno Smith. Not yet.
Special-teams captain and part-time linebacker/fullback Nick Bellore signed a two-year contract extension with Seattle at team headquarters Wednesday.
The 33-year-old veteran previously played for the New York Jets, San Francisco and Detroit. He first signed with the Seahawks before the 2019 season.
“Before I was here, this was always where I wanted to end up, just because you hear the lore of being here, then finally getting here and being around everybody in the building, there’s no other place I’d want to be,” Bellore told the Seahawks’ website after signing.
“To be here late in my career has been incredible.”
Bellore has played a dozen NFL seasons and had a Pro Bowl selection for special teams in 2020 with Seattle since entering the league in 2011 as an undrafted free agent out of Central Michigan.
He led Seattle in special-teams tackles last season for the second consecutive year. He played more than 75% of all snaps in the kicking game for the Seahawks in 2022.
Seattle has re-signed pending free agents Bellore and right guard Phil Haynes in each of the last two days.
Tuesday was the opening of the window each NFL team can use its franchise tag as an option to keep veterans with expired contracts from entering free agency March 15 with the start of the new league year. The window to tag pending free agents closes March 7. Most tagging decisions come up against that deadline.
The Seahawks remain in negotiations with Smith and his representatives from Wasserman Media Group on a multiyear contract, following the quarterback’s Pro Bowl and record-setting 2022 season. Both sides would prefer a multiyear deal rather than the franchise tag.
Seattle wants a longer-term deal to have more team-friendly salary-cap numbers prorated across the life of new contract per league accounting rules. That is, more team-friendly than the prohibitive cap charge of $32.4 million that would come with franchise tag on a quarterback in 2023.
Smith wants the security and up-front cash signing bonus and incentive dollars on what would be his first multiyear contract since the rookie deal he signed with the Jets in 2013.
This month at the Pro Bowl in Las Vegas, Smith said it was “looking very good” that he will be re-signing with the Seahawks.
“Yeah, we’ve had talks, and we are in the process of getting all that settled right now,” Smith said Feb. 3 on SiriusXM NFL Radio’s Pro Bowl Live program.
“It’s looking very good,” Smith told SiriusXM satellite radio of a new contract with Seattle. “We think we can get some things done, but obviously those things take time.
“This is the process that I hate about the NFL, because I just want to play football. But it’s a business, as well. So we’ve got to take care of business, and then we’ll get back to the football.”
Last month, Smith said moments after the Seahawks’ season ended with a first-round playoff loss at San Francisco he wanted to retire with the team.
“I want to finish my career in Seattle,” Smith said Jan. 14 after his season of going from a seven-year NFL backup to a Pro Bowl selection and NFL leader in completion percentage as Russell Wilson’s replacement leading the Seahawks.
“I want to be here. The town, the city, the team, Coach (Pete) Carroll, the organization, they all embraced me. I was a guy who probably could have been out of the league. They embraced me.
“I want to re-pay them for that.”
Aaron Curry joins Steelers staff
The Pittsburgh Steelers made official Wednesday the hiring of former Seahawks assistant linebackers coach Aaron Curry. Curry is the Steelers’ new inside linebackers coach.
Curry, a former first-round draft choice of Seattle as a linebacker, is the third Seahawks assistant to leave Pete Carroll’s staff since the end of the 2022 season.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers introduced former Seattle quarterbacks coach Dave Canales as their new offensive coordinator this week.
Canales is bringing ex-Seahawks assistant wide receivers coach Brad Idzik with him to be the Bucs’ new wide receivers coach.
This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 2:00 PM.
