Source confirms: Seahawks trading Geno Smith to Raiders, to reunite QB with Pete Carroll
The Seahawks are cleaning house on offense.
Geno Smith is gone. He’s being traded to reunite with Pete Carroll.
The News Tribune confirmed late Friday afternoon from an NFL source the Seahawks are trading their 34-year-old, two-time Pro Bowl quarterback to the Las Vegas Raiders for a third-round choice in next’s month’s draft.
The Raiders’ new coach is Carroll — the man who in 2022 revived Smith’s wayward career as a backup and made him a franchise QB for the first time in a decade, in Seattle.
The source told the TNT the trade of Smith is expected to be finalized Wednesday. That’s the first day of the new league year.
This is the second time in three years the Seahawks have traded their starting quarterback. Carroll gave Smith Seattle’s job in the spring of 2022, after the team traded Russell Wilson to Denver for a load of top picks.
Albert Breer of SI.com reported Schneider initially offered Smith and wide receiver DK Metcalf to the Raiders for four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby. The Raiders reportedly told Seattle Crosby wasn’t available. Las Vegas then signed Crosby Wednesday to an extension, the largest non-quarterback contract in NFL history. So the Seahawks reportedly offered Smith and Metcalf to the Raiders before Wednesday, perhaps the day this week Metcalf told the Seahawks he wanted traded
Smith had one year remaining on the three-year, $75 million contract he signed after the first playoff and Pro Bowl season of his career for the Seahawks in ‘22. He said on the day of the 2024 season finale Jan. 5 at the Los Angeles Rams he believed he was a top-10 NFL quarterback. He was seeking a new deal to get paid like one, in what could be one of his last big-money deals in the league that would take him past his 35th birthday.
Schneider was negotiating with Smith’s agent Chafie Fields last week at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis on what the GM said was an extension to remain Seattle’s QB past 2025.
Schneider was seeking to lower Smith’s scheduled salary-cap charge of $44.5 million for 2025.
The GM sure did that. Trading Smith to the Raiders saves the Seahawks $31 million in cap space for this year.
That puts Seattle in play to bid on free-agent passers when the negotiating period for unrestricted free agents begins Monday.
Sam Darnold, still just 27 coming off a 4,300-yard, 35-touchdown season for 14-3 Minnesota?
Justin Fields, who turned 26 just this week and would seem to fit new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s QB-on-the-move system?
Aaron Rodgers? Schneider worked with the four-time NFL MVP when the GM was a top personnel executive with the Green Bay Packers. The fact that was in the late 2000s is an issue.
Whatever the next, the Seahawks franchise has just turned on its head.
Next Seahawks quarterback?
If it wasn’t clear already, trading Smith cements that coach Mike Maconald is starting over on offense.
As his players saw when he cut then traded his leading tackler and two starting inside linebackers in the middle of last season, Macdonald doesn’t wait around for mediocrity to get better.
The NFL’s youngest head man at age 37 hired new offensive coordinator and play caller Kubiak last month. That was after Macdonald fired OC Ryan Grubb after just one season on the job — the head man’s rookie season that ended with Seattle out of the playoffs again.
Then Macdonald and Kubiak hired a new offensive line coach, veteran Kubiak partner John Benton.
The Seahawks are entertaining offers from other teams to trade for Metcalf. Like Smith, Seattle’s top wide receiver for the last six years is entering the final year of his contract.
Now Macdonald and the Seahawks are going to have a new quarterback.
The question The News Tribune asked general manager John Schneider at the end of the 2024 draft last spring, when for the 13th time in 15 years he didn’t draft a quarterback — and asked the GM last week at the league’s scouting combine — is now a blaring, glaring issue.
What is the Seahawks’ future plan at quarterback?
The future is now.
Last week at the combine in Indianapolis, Schneider answered that question this way: “Well, hopefully, the (draft) board talks to us, right, and maybe we draft a quarterback.
“It just hasn’t gone that way.”
The Seahawks hope their draft board screams at them between now and the first round starting April 24.
They have the 18th-overall pick in round one, the 50th-overall pick in round two, and now two third-round choices. As of Friday night the league source told the TNT they didn’t know which of Las Vegas’ third-round pick the Seahawks received in trading Smith. ESPN reported Friday night Seattle got the 92nd-overall pick from the Raiders, late in round three on the second day of the draft.
Sam Howell, bridge QB?
Could Sam Howell be a bridge to that draft-pick quarterback being ready to start for Seattle.
The 24-year-old Howell is the only quarterback on the Seahawks’ roster after this trade of Smith. Like Smith, Howell is entering the final year of his contract.
The former Washington starter led the league in interceptions for the Commanders while leading that team to a 4-13 record in 2023.
Schneider traded to get Howell before last season. He was inaccurate with his throws early in training camp.
In the only true game action he got in the regular season, he replaced the injured Smith in the second half and completed five of 14 passes for 24 yards, an interception and four sacks finishing a 30-13 home loss to Green Bay Dec. 15.
Last week at the combine, Schneider said Howell didn’t fit the drop-back passing offense one-and-done Grubb installed before the Seahawks fired him Jan. 6.
Three weeks later, coach Mike Macdonald and Schneider hired Kubiak from the New Orleans Saints to be Seattle’s new offensive coordinator and play caller. Kubiak’s system is based more on moving the quarterback out of the pocket with bootleg plays and roll-out passes.
“I wanted to see Sam with these guys,” Schneider said of Howell with Kubiak’s new offensive staff and system. “With Klint, you know, all the boots and the movement stuff, you know, we didn’t really see that last year. We were more like some pocket and, you know, he came in late (after the trade).
“You know that wasn’t a good setup for him.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 4:42 PM.
