Seahawks to keep Geno Smith on roster and guarantee 2024 salary, per report
Will Seahawks trade Geno Smith this year or keep him as a bridge quarterback? Seaside Joe 1811
The Seattle Seahawks are not going to release Geno Smith this week and that triggers the guarantee on his $12.7 million base salary for 2024, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The move does not guarantee that Geno will be the Seahawks starting quarterback next season, but obviously increases the odds because releasing him would have assured a change.
The Seahawks still have options ahead with Geno Smith, even with his guarantee kicking in.
Seattle owes Geno Smith a $9.6 million roster bonus in March, which means that this is basically a $22.3 million decision, not $12.7 million. However, if the Seahawks pay him his roster bonus he then becomes a pretty attractive trade candidate if it turns out that another franchise wants a cheap starting quarterback: The new team would only need pay him the $12.7 million and technically Seattle could also offer to pay part of that too.
Would Geno be worth a first round pick in trade?
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That would seem unlikely because there were definitely points in 2023 when it seemed the Seahawks might at least consider making a switch to Drew Lock. But as a $12.7 million starting quarterback, a team that needs a quarterback would create a lot of flexibility with the rest of the roster and salary cap. In 2016, the Eagles were able to get a first and a fourth for Sam Bradford, who I don’t think was a better QB then than Geno is now, after the Vikings lost Teddy Bridgewater for the season (and beyond) in training camp.
The other clear option here for Seattle is that Geno is a bridge quarterback if the team has the opportunity to draft one in 2024 who they really like. The roster bonus is what it is, it’s cash that the team isn’t short on, but the salary cap is very manageable.
And finally, the Seahawks might just want to have Geno and Lock be their two quarterbacks in 2024 and there won’t be any changes at all.
I am fine with keeping Geno now- He has done Ok to date. The one thing I will say negative, is he doesn't have that top Five see it /do it Grasp! Watching the all 22 -there are several times "per Game" that it's there, But for some reason he just doesn't see it, or he lets go too late and either its behind ,over the top or thrown to the wrong guy usually late! That is a Brain thing that some people have and some just don't. I believe Geno is a good QB, but doesn't have that quick twitch brain thing that makes the greats, Great! ( Or the very good ones very good )! Although with an Improved O-line , who knows he could scoot close to being a top ten NFL QB. I guess we are about to see , maybe?
The stats/analysts prove their case that Geno has been a top 10 QB the last 2 years - and that he’s achieved this despite a mixed bag of handicaps (bottom of league defense, chaotic offensive line, meh offensive coordinator) and advantages great weapons, relatively healthy.
Last year, detractors commonly said Geno wasn’t clutch. Geno proved the opposite to be true this season. Instead of updating their priors, they now say Geno can’t win a Super Bowl, based on no more factual evidence than the “he isn’t clutch.” It is easy to assume that Geno’s athletic performance will decline because he’s on the wrong side of 30, but he’s unique in his ratio of mental vs physical game reps. We actually don’t know if he’s at his ceiling, floor, or somewhere in between.
Midway through this season, he dramatically improved his time-to-throw, and proved he’s still capable of meaningful athletic performance improvement.
Still another criticism that routinely shows up in Geno threads has to do with his lack of- for want of a better word - charisma… or leadership. But there is plenty of evidence that his teammates really play for him - and that he’s able to elevate the players around him (Drew Lock, Eagles, it’s a meme.)
If Geno is “who we thought he was” - another common put down - he wouldn’t have been named Comeback Player of the Year or made it to 2 Pro Bowls. He’s obviously not who his loudest detractors think he is.
He’s one of one, both in terms of his career arc and in terms of his motivations. He’s the only top 10 veteran QB on a team-friendly deal. That makes him much more valuable to the team than many alternatives.
I don’t think Geno is a player who will dominate a game and win by brute force. But I also don’t think those players are necessarily quarterbacks. I think Aaron Donald was that player for the Rams a couple years back. I think Kam Chancellor was that
player in 2014 for the Seahawks. So I don’t think he has to be, for the Seahawks to improve dramatically and compete in this division and beyond.