Why re-signing Geno Smith doesn’t end Seahawks thinking about drafting a quarterback first
They didn’t break their bank.
They didn’t put themselves in salary-cap hell.
They got from Geno Smith what he said he’d give them: Loyalty.
And they still have the fifth pick in the draft next month.
The re-signing of Pro Bowl quarterback Geno Smith couldn’t have gone better for the Seahawks, on multiple fronts.
Wade through the hullabaloo of the initial news Monday of a $105 million deal, and, at its core, Smith’s new contract is $25 million per season. The base value of the deal is three years and $75 million, as NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo first reported Tuesday.
The other $30 million is what Smith could earn if he maxed out the incentive bonuses from this year through the 2025 season.
Garafolo reported Smith will earn $28 million in 2023.
In a league where for players guaranteed cash is king, Smith gets $40 million guaranteed up front. That $40 million fully guaranteed at signing is 36th-most in an NFL contract, tied with Laremy Tunsil, the Houston Texans left tackle. Twelve quarterbacks got more money fully guaranteed when they signed their current deals, including Derek Carr earlier Monday from the New Orleans Saints. Carr, the former Raiders captain, one year younger than Smith, got $60 million guaranteed at signing.
Even if Smith earns every incentive bonus over the full three years of his deal, which is to say he becomes a four-time Pro Bowl quarterback by being selected again in 2023, ‘24 and ‘25, his average maximum value of $35 million per year would tie Minnesota QB Kirk Cousins for 10th-most in the NFL. Again, it would only be that high if Smith was one of the league’s best passers the next three seasons.
Plus, the salary cap is only going to go up the next three years, from $182 million last year to $224.8 million this year to perhaps nearing $250 million next year. So what is expensive for Seattle with Smith’s new deal this year will be less so in the next three years.
All that — and the Seahawks have the fifth pick in next month’s draft.
That, for Seattle, is a GOOD deal.
Still in on drafting a QB
Even while re-signing Smith, his new contract keeps the Seahawks in what coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider said last week at league’s scouting combine they were all-in on: taking a quarterback at the top of next month’s draft. Smith got three years, not four or five. Smith’s contract is front-loaded. Having 40-50% of the possible total money paid within the first year means if the Seahawks have a college quarterback they love available in the draft at five — or even at, say, nine if they trade down with QB-needy Carolina — Seattle might still draft one.
This year’s top pick is a generational one for the Seahawks. It’s their highest since 2009, the year before Carroll and Schneider took over the team. They don’t expect the team do be drafting here again for another 15-20 years. This is Seattle’s opportunity to draft an elite quarterback to have at rookie, minimum cost for four years, longer than Smith’s new contract.
At least that’s what they succeeded in getting the rest of the NFL to think last week at the combine. Let the trade offers flow ...
If the Seahawks are like much of the league, in love with the physical skills Florida’s Anthony Richardson showed off at the combine last week, they could draft him yet not have to play him right away. That’s a luxury almost all teams drafting in the top five and even top 10 don’t normally have. They are drafting that high because they aren’t good teams. These Seahawks were in the playoffs last season.
Thanks, Russell Wilson trade.
For the Seahawks, Richardson with his mere 13 college starts would spend two years developing, not starting, in the NFL.
“It’s the position we are in. We are totally connected to the quarterbacks that are coming out,” Carroll said last week in Indianapolis. “This is a really huge opportunity for us. It’s a rare opportunity. We’ve been drafting in the low 20s for such a long time you just don’t get the chance at these guys.
“We are deeply involved with all that.”
Even after Smith’s new contract, that still applies for these Seahawks.
The connection with Geno Smith
Why, after one season with him as their starter, did the Seahawks believe in investing in Smith when they had the fifth overall pick and were immersed in considering college quarterbacks?
Carroll said it’s more than 2022. It was the three one-year contracts Smith kept signing to return to Seattle as Wilson’s backup from 2019-21.
“The connection stayed true throughout,” Carroll said. “There’s a lot invested in Geno, and Geno’s invested lot in us, so then when the time comes when he finally gets a chance to play...we had an inkling that there was something really special there, but we didn’t know. ...
“And then the way he handled it with such class, character, makeup and competitiveness and beautiful come-through and athleticism, all that stuff is all part of the story.
“I think my favorite part of is though is how he handled it, that he was able to take this moment and capture it and he opened up to the club in terms of his leadership opportunities. It was almost impeccably handled, orchestrated right out of the book. Exactly how you’d like it to be.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2023 at 8:29 AM.
