Maybe he just didn’t want to be here, after all.
Geno Smith and his new Las Vegas Raiders the Seahawks traded him to last month, have reportedly agreed on a two-year contract extension through 2027. It’s worth $75 million, with $66.5 million guaranteed. It has a maximum value of $85.5 million if the 34-year-old quarterback reaches all his incentive bonuses, all per multiple reports Thursday.
On Jan. 5, the day this past Seahawks season ended with a win over the reserves for the NFC West-champion Los Angeles Rams, Smith said he believed he was a top-10 QB in the NFL. He also said he believed Seattle’s decision-makers saw him that way, too.
The implication was clear: He wanted to be paid as a top-10 quarterback this offseason.
Yet the average annual value of his new deal with the Raiders, $37.5 million, ties him for 16th-highest among league QBs, with New Orleans’ Derek Carr. Smith’s reported total guarantees of $66.5 million is 17th-most. It’s well behind 16th, the $100 million Carr and Atlanta’s Kirk Cousins have guaranteed in their contracts. Smith’s guarantees with Las Vegas are $100 million below the league top 10 in guaranteed money for QBs.
In the end, Smith’s deal with the Raiders is not much more than the $35 million-plus the Seahawks were believed to have offered their Pro Bowl passer in two of the previous three seasons.
General manager John Schneider has since said Smith and his agent Chafie Fields didn’t respond to Seattle’s offer. Thus the negotiations on a new deal for Smith beyond his ending with the 2025 season ended almost as soon as they began.
“We made an offer to Geno, tried to extend him. It became apparent that we weren’t going to be able to get a deal done,” Schneider said in a hallway of the Seahawks’ facility last month.
“Yeah, it wasn’t, like, a very long negotiation.”
Once Pete Carroll returned to the NFL after a year away to become the Raiders’ coach in late January, Schneider knew he had a likely, ready trade partner for Smith if contract talks went nowhere.
Carroll revived Smith’s career in 2022 with the Seahawks. The coach made the seven-year backup Seattle’s starter following the Seahawks’ trade of Russell Wilson to Denver in March of 2022. Prior to that, Smith had seven consecutive one-year, minimum contracts for four NFL teams.
The 2025 Raiders are coming off a last-place finish (4-13) in the loaded AFC West. They needed a veteran quarterback.
For Smith, the conditions in Seattle had changed. The team fired Carroll before last season and replaced him with Mike Macdonald. The 37-year-old first-time head coach, the league’s youngest, doesn’t have near the relationship Smith and the other veterans whom Carroll coached in Seattle.
With how unique and personal he was, the Seahawks may never have another coach like Carroll.
So when Smith and Fields did not respond to Seattle’s contract offer early the week of March 3, Schneider didn’t wait. He quickly “pivoted,” in the GM’s words, to trading Smith back to Carroll.
And to Sam Darnold.
Darnold was becoming a free agent when the league’s market opened a few days later.
Schneider, coach Mike Macdonald and new Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak immediately decided to target Darnold. At 27, he is seven years younger than Smith. Darnold is coming off a 4,300-yard passing season with 35 touchdowns, leading Minnesota to a 14-3 season in 2024.
The first day of free-agent negotiating March 10, days after crickets from Smith and his agent, the Seahawks agreed with Darnold on a three-year deal. It’s worth a maximum of $100.5 million — $33.5 million per year. Darnold is getting $55 million guaranteed.
The net from all this, from Seattle’s perspective: In Schneider’s and Macdonald’s mind, the Seahawks got younger and cheaper with a QB coming off a better season at the sport’s most important position. And in the process, they got a third-round pick from the Raiders.
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