Seahawks offseason plan: Without Geno Smith edition
How $30 million in additional cap space could impact the Seahawks offseason
In the first two parts of this series on “the most financially responsible offseason”, the Seattle Seahawks first cut down their spending to only the necessary pieces to create about $55 million in cap space, then got through free agency and the draft to bring us near the finish line of having a 2025 depth chart.
That was essentially a complete offseason plan by Seaside Joe that gave Seahawks fans an idea of what the 2025 team could look like if Seattle made bold business-only decisions and decided to keep Geno Smith on his current contract.
Whether or not Geno would agree to that is important in the context of the real world, but as all offseason plans about the Seahawks that exist, we have to take some liberties and leaps in order to come to a resolution for what options are available to Seattle and what decisions could make or break the franchise’s future.
Because teams seem to regret contract extensions more often than they reach the Super Bowl after doubling or tripling-down…
The most that the Seahawks could do for a “FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE” offseason was to not cut him.
Which, if you don’t have a dog in the fight, sounds awesome for Geno Smith:
He will make $31 million in cash in 2025, not including outside endeavors/endorsements
That’s the 13th-most for any QB in 2025
The average salary in America is $65,000
It would take you 477 years to make $31 million on a $65,000 salary (obviously if you didn’t get a raise for the next five centuries)
Of course, Geno doesn’t work an average job, he has to weigh his benefits in the context of being an NFL quarterback who is presumed to be good enough to start in 2025. (That’s not a specific dig at Geno, just think of how many QBs were presumed starters in the last few years who ended up getting benched.)
But while we’re including context, Geno had his worst season as Seattle’s starter in 2024 and regardless of how much blame he deserves for that, it is not “financially responsible” for the Seahawks to simply assume that he’s going to be better with Klint Kubiak and a slightly different supporting cast. If Geno can’t transcend his talents being handcuffed by Ryan Grubb and Laken Tomlinson, what guarantees does Seattle have that he’s going to be better with his third offensive coordinator and John Schneider’s next effort to rebuild an offensive line that Seahawks fans have been frustrated with for the last ten years?
So if we’re looking at the full scope of paying Geno Smith his entire $31 million owed the year after he averaged one touchdown and one interception per start (prior to getting juiced by the Rams in the finale), at a time when even Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff, and Sam Darnold can be among the league leaders in touchdowns, I’d say that’s generous.
The previous post in the series had the Seahawks parting ways with most of their free agents and adding several players who should be good values at this stage of their careers, while getting ONE major expenditure in order to address the offensive line (even though, again, Schneider could still think that’s a bad idea), plus spending 15.5% of their cap space on Geno…
But what if they didn’t?
If we run the same offseason scenarios but also release Geno Smith — the benefits of which I’ve detailed in the past — to save $31 million in 2025 cap space, what could that allow the Seahawks to do?
Potentially add one or two of the best players in the NFL and still be able to function at quarterback with options expected or known to be available. Keep reading to find out who, how, and why…then you decide for yourself if this version of the 2025 Seahawks would be better or worse than the version with Geno: