After the Seahawks traded quarterback Geno Smith to the Raiders, Seattle G.M. John Schneider said that the team made an offer to Smith — and that it wasn’t “a very long negotiation.”
As it turns out, there was no negotiation at all. Smith told Albert Breer of SI.com that his representatives didn’t even counter the offer the Seahawks had made.
It was more than the money, which fell “well shy” of the desired APY. The issue was the structure, which once again didn’t fully guarantee payments beyond the first year of the deal. It meant that the Seahawks would continue to have the same year-to-year flexibility with Smith.
And it’s the same year-to-year flexibility they have with his replacement, Sam Darnold.
Enter the Raiders. More importantly, enter Pete Carroll. With Smith’s former Seahawks coach not in the league in 2024, there were no limitations on Carroll’s ability to talk to Smith. About anything.
And talk they did.
“I would call him whenever I got frustrated,” Smith told Breer. “He talked me through things, and he still coached me. And I think that’s what makes him such a special man, is that he was coaching me even when he wasn’t my head coach. A lot of the things that he was telling me, a lot of conversations we had really kept me steady throughout the season, and kept my head on straight. Because, again, man, this is a team that I gave everything I had to.”
Smith was frustrated last year in part because he didn’t get an extension from the Seahawks. And nothing would have prevented Carroll and Smith from agreeing to try to partner up in 2025, if Carroll gets another job.
Such a plan would have violated no rules, as long as they stopped talking after Carroll took the Las Vegas job. And, as it turned out, Smith and Carroll are together again. And Smith has the new contract he didn’t get in Seattle.
Still, Smith has landed in a tougher spot. Regardless of whether the Seahawks and Raiders have similar overall talent, the AFC West is much more loaded than the NFC West.
And the clock will be ticking on both Smith and Carroll to get things turned around. Quickly.
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