Pro Football Rumors
Hovering somewhere between the Saints and Steelers in the NFL’s middle class over the past few years, the Seahawks made significant offseason changes. They swapped out two known commodities on offense, dealing away Geno Smith and D.K. Metcalf before adding less reliable figures to replace the two cornerstones. Sam Darnold and Cooper Kupp‘s performances will go a long way toward determining if the Seahawks can make a level jump this year.
Beyond that, John Schneider‘s second offseason with full roster control led to a major offensive line investment in the draft. In a division with Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan, the Seahawks have an annually difficult task. Will their offensive adjustments move the needle in what should be a more difficult NFC West compared to 2024?
Smith’s contract became an issue for a second straight offseason. While the Seahawks were ready to renegotiate this year — not the case in 2024 — they moved on. This wrapped a six-year partnership with Smith, who had moved from a low-priority player — the Seahawks cut the former Russell Wilson backup for roster-rearranging purposes in 2019 — to a starter who had clearly established himself as a midlevel option. The Seahawks were just not ready to greenlight an upper-middle-class payday to retain the late-blooming arm.
Mike Macdonald endorsed a second Smith starter-level payday coming off a 10-7 season, and early expectations pointed to that eventually happening after talks began in February. Smith, though, tabbed his value in a different salary bracket than the Seahawks wanted to enter.
After evaluating Smith for three-plus years (counting an injury fill-in stretch in 2021), Schneider deemed him worthy of a slight raise — but not one that would have vaulted the QB near the $50MM-per-year club. Smith was believed to be eyeing a deal between $40 and $45MM per annum. That is now well off the top tier, thanks to the $50MM-AAV club’s expansion, but the Seahawks are believed to have offered Smith a deal that resembled the Darnold terms (three years, $100.5MM). Smith rejected it, and the team moved on.
Smith, 35 in October, did not land the contract he sought from the Raiders. His reunion with Pete Carroll brought a two-year, $75MM extension. A key difference between Smith and Darnold’s deals, though, involves fully guaranteed money. Smith secured $58.5MM at signing. Not only is that north of where the Seahawks went for Darnold, it marks a sizable bump from what Smith received on his previous Seattle pact. Carroll and Schneider signed off on a three-year, $75MM contract in 2023. This was essentially a pay-as-you-go deal, as it contained only $27.3MM at signing.
Smith hovered in no-man’s land in terms of QB AAV on that contract, checking in north of backup money but well south of true...
