Heartbreaking: Geno Smith American american football quarterback Just Passed Away At the Aged of 33…see..more…The Seahawks have set themselves up for another very intriguing offseason. They’ve already made the biggest decision a team can make – saying goodbye to the one person responsible for the roster, coaching staff and the gameday implementation of both.
There are several other critical decisions to be made. As most of us are aware, the Seahawks currently do not have any salary cap room to spend in 2024 at this moment in time. While they have plenty of ‘movable’ money in the form of non-guaranteed salary and roster bonuses that can be eliminated or otherwise adjusted, some difficult decisions will need to be made — and soon.
We will be tracking and providing analysis of the overall roster and salary cap to keep everyone aware of the options available to the team, as well as the costs and benefits.
Perhaps the biggest piece of that roster (and likely the first roster choice they will have to consider – more on that below) is deciding on Geno Smith.
When a Head Coach is no longer with the team and the starting quarterback is not an entrenched franchise-level player locked into an immovable long-term contract, there will always be questions about his future with the team. Fair or not, NFL teams’ success begins with that position.
In the case of the Seahawks though, we have an extra layer of intrigue. Pete Carroll, in his season-ending press conference gave an extremely strong endorsement of Smith, pointing to him as a ‘team strength.’ Days after his dismissal, John Schneider gave a much more sober and balanced answer when asked to assess Smith’s play in 2023. It is fair to say that the ground the 33-year-old quarterback was standing on got softer with Carroll no longer at the head of the table.
The contract the Seahawks signed Smith to last year gives the team options and flexibility. It was structured to be revisited after the 2023 season, no matter what the results were on the field.
Let’s review it for ourselves and look at what options the Seahawks have. We need to start by looking at how Smith did in 2023.
A Brief Look at His Season
John Schneider’s response to the question perfectly encapsulated Smith’s performance this year. It was ‘good.’ There were things to like and things that were not up to snuff. Consistently good performances were elusive, just as they were in 2022. But on a high view level, the overall numbers declined badly.
That is where we need to start. Numbers are cold and they remove feelings from the equation. Particularly when we are talking about what an amazing feel-good story that we have all witnessed since trading Russell Wilson away. This year, Pete Carroll constantly deflected criticism away from his quarterback and presented an extremely positive view of him when asked in press conferences about his occasionally spotty performances. Such an influential figure speaking that way often shapes a good portion of the narrative for fans.
Context is also critical.
In Smith’s contract, he wagered heavily on himself in 2023, agreeing to escalators for the four major quarterback statistics (plus one team achievement – a playoff appearance) were he to exceed the prior season’s numbers, with as much as $15 million extra dollars available to him. How did he do?
He was not able to earn any of the escalators. In fact, he fell well short of the four passing targets.
How short? So much so, we need to have a look at his performance to assess his future with the team. His overall performance this year was far less effective than 2022.
Smith played all 17 games in 2022 but only 15 this year, missing the second San Francisco game and the Philadelphia game with injury. To get a true apples-to-apples comparison, I took his average production over the 15 games and credited him with 2 more games to get a fair representation. The results are very interesting:
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