The Seattle Seahawks rewarding Geno Smith with a year-three contract extension was not a surprise to anyone. Sure, there were whispers of will, the Seahawks put the franchise tag on Smith along with whether would Smith look to greener pastures if the opportunity arose.
None of the above happened and the two sides found a sweet spot with Smith putting pen to paper on a three-year $75 million contract that could reach $105. The base salary will be a cool $25 million in 2023 and a hefty guaranteed signing bonus of $30 million. The cap hit amount is yet to be determined.
WIN FOR ALL
For the Seahawks, the deal makes sense in that the deal is incentive-laden. The better Smith performs the more money he gets.
“It’s heavily structured that way,” coach Pete Carroll said of the incentives when he appeared on Seattle Sports 710 AM Tuesday morning, saying that Smith is “gambling a little bit in that sense on himself.” Carroll continued on saying, “ Were counting on him coming through and doing the things that he was able to do last year.
After seven seasons as a backup, Smith led the Seahawks back to the playoffs while leading the NFL in completion percentage (69.8), finished fourth in the league in touchdown passes (30), and fifth in passer rating (100.9) . The former 2013 second-round draft pick rewrote the Seahawks record book for quarterbacks last year.
Smith set franchise records for completion percentage, completions (399), attempts (572) passing yards (4,282). Smith joined Russell Wilson and Dave Krieg as the only three Seahawks quarterbacks to throw for 30 or more touchdown passes in a season.
MOVING FORWARD
Like any relationship, both sides will need to have patience and trust. Smith earned his first Pro Bowl appearance last season and was named AP Comeback Player of the Year and Pro Football Writers of America’s Comeback Player of the Year and Most Improved Player. Do the Seahawks expect Smith to earn another Pro Football appearance?
Probably not but Carroll will expect Smith to take care of the football, and make the plays he has to that is play mistake-free football more times than not. Simply put Smith needs to be among the top 12 quarterbacks. Carroll will need to have patience with Smith when he struggles. Carroll has done this and there is no reason why he would switch up.
Smith will need to trust in the system and follow the adjustments the coaching staff will suggest when he like every quarterback struggles.
Pete Carroll was asked about the Geno Smith story last week at the NFL combine before he signed. The quote below and the others that Carroll and General Manager John Schneider are on record always pointed to Smith re-signing with the team
“It’s such a good story and it’s just a real story, it really happened right before our eyes, a guy that kind of got knocked around and kind of got lost in the shuffle after a while…. Then the way he handled it with such class, character, makeup and competitiveness and, you know, beautiful come-through and athleticism, all that stuff is all part of the story. I think my favourite part of it 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, and it was almost impeccably handled, orchestrated right out of the book—exactly how you’d like it to be.”
Smith is the team’s only signed quarterback on the roster so there is no doubt the team will bring in several free agents and maybe use a draft pick.
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