Geno Smith on the Seahawks’ need to beat 49ers: ‘It’s very personal.’ For now. And later
Geno Smith’s never done it.
He needs to do it.
His Seahawks absolutely must, at some point, to be the team they seek to be.
Beating the 49ers.
“Yeah, it’s very personal, man,” Smith said Thursday, three days before Seattle (4-5) tries to end a six-game losing streak against San Francisco (5-4) Sunday in Santa Clara, California (1:05 p.m., channel 13).
“When you think about division opponents, these games matter the most,” the Seahawks’ two-time Pro Bowl quarterback said. “Especially with the 49ers. They’ve been at the top of our division, one of the best teams in the league for a while.
“If we want to be that type of team that we say we are, we’ve got to go through teams like this.
“I have no doubt in my mind (in) the type of guys that we have, the type of preparation we’re going to put it — and, really, how we’re going to step on that field.
“I know I’m going to step on it with that chip on my shoulder, that edge that I always have. And I know that our guys are, as well.”
Smith is 0-5 in his career against the 49ers. All are in the last three seasons as the Seahawks’ starting quarterback. San Francisco is the only NFL team in his 12 pro seasons in the league Smith has played more than twice and not beaten.
His play caller says he senses how personal the losing streak to San Francisco and finally beating the 49ers is to Smith.
“Especially for the guys that have been here a long time like Geno has,” Seahawks first-year offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said following practice Thursday.
“It’s something we do take as a rivalry, we do take it personal. You can see the attention to detail (this week).”
Grubb said Smith and his offense did “a phenomenal job” Thursday of being on their assignments, from morning meetings to practice that ended just before dark, nailing the game plan for Sunday. He said in that regard the team’s latest preparation day is “the best I’ve seen” this season.
Geno Smith vs. the 49ers
In those five games against the Niners, Smith has completed 68.1% of his throws (128 of 188) for 1,180 yards (236 yards per game), four touchdowns and five interceptions. The 49ers have overwhelmed Seattle’s offensive line in those five games, sacking Smith 15 times in the five games.
As Smith says, the Seahawks aren’t going anywhere they want to go — division title, home playoff games, Super Bowl — until he and they beat the 49ers.
The News Tribune asked Smith Thursday how much he wants to get not having beaten San Francisco off his resume.
The quarterback answered quickly and firmly.
“I mean, there’s teams that haven’t beaten us yet,” Smith said.
That includes Arizona, the first-place team the Seahawks, 49ers and Rams are chasing right now in the NFC West. Smith his 4-0 as Seattle’s quarterback against the Cardinals.
The Seahawks and Cardinals (6-4) play next week in Seattle, and two weeks after that in Arizona.
The other team Smith has started against more than once as the Seahawks’ QB and is unbeaten against: Denver (2-0).
The Seahawks’ 2024 season isn’t the only reason this game Sunday may prove pivotal.
There’s also Smith’s contract situation.
Geno Smith’s contract
Smith was a backup for seven years on a series of seven one-year contract for the Giants, Chargers and Seahawks until 2022. That’s when he replaced traded Russell Wilson as Seattle’s guy. He broke three of Wilson’s team records for passing in a season, made his first Pro Bowl team and started a playoff game for the first time in his career.
That earned him the $75 million contract he’s playing on now. It’s his first multi-year deal with anyone since the Miami native’s rookie deal with the Jets as their second-round pick from West Virginia in 2013.
The TNT asked him Thursday what he appreciates and values most about being the Seahawks’ franchise quarterback.
“I just value the opportunity. That’s the biggest thing,” he said. “The opportunity to go out there and to win with my teammates, to go to practice every day, to engage with these guys in the locker room, to be a part of this team, to wear that Seahawks decal.
“Every single part of it means a lot.”
So how much has he thought about where he wants to end his career, and whether he would want to be a Seahawk forever?
The 12th-year veteran is too smart to answer that one right now.
“I’m thinking about winning on Sunday,” Smith said.
“All the rest of that stuff will figure itself out.”
His three-year, $75 million deal with the Seahawks ends after the 2025 season. Smith has said he and his representatives went to the team’s general manager John Schneider before this season with the idea of extending the quarterback’s deal this year, to keep him in Seattle past 2025 and thus past his 36th birthday in 2026.
In his 15 years as GM Schneider has typically re-signed the team’s veteran, foundational players to extensions immediately before or early in training camp entering the final seasons of contracts. For Smith, that would mean next summer.
That makes these final games of this season Smith’s proving time, the last evidence before training camp in 2025. The contract of backup Sam Howell also ends after the 2025 season. The Washington Commanders’ starter last season was erratic during training camp this summer, and has played only one snap in the regular season. That was when Smith left for a play banged up briefly at Atlanta last month.
The 2025 NFL draft class for quarterbacks is regarded far more lightly than this year’s, when a record six QBs went in the first dozen picks. There are likely to be multiple teams in urgent need of quarterbacks that will finish with worse records than the Seahawks this season, and thus will have higher places from which to take the best QBs in the draft next spring. Those include the Panthers, Raiders, Browns, Saints and Giants.
That makes the Seahawks’ latest game against the 49ers Sunday in Santa Clara almost certainly Smith’s last chance — barring a playoff matchup with San Francisco in January — to beat the team Seattle must beat to progress as a franchise.
“This is a stretch run for him,” former NFL quarterback and league analyst Hugh Millen told The News Tribune on KJR-FM radio in Seattle Wednesday.
“I wouldn’t want to be Geno or his agent going into this offseason where we are 0-6 against the 49ers asking for an extension.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2024 at 4:14 PM.
