MARCH 7: As is often the case, a later update pegged this contract at a slightly lower value. The deal’s base value sits at three years and $75MM, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets. Smith will collect $40MM fully guaranteed, per Garafolo, and incentives comprise the rest of the $105MM max value. Smith going from a $3.5MM agreement in 2022 to this represents a staggering leap for the 11th-year veteran, even though the $25MM-per-year base pay is not quite what came out Monday night.
MARCH 6: The Seahawks have subscribed for more of quarterback Geno Smith, signing the veteran to a new multi-year contract, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network. After leading the Seahawks to the postseason in his first year as a full-time starter for the team, the 2022 NFL Comeback Player of the Year is coming back to Seattle.
Smith agreed to a three-year deal worth $105MM, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. While many details are as of yet unknown, Smith is expected to make $52MM in his first year under the deal. After making $17.55MM over the first 10 years of his career, Smith is now set to double that in his contract’s $35MM average annual value (AAV) and nearly triple it in his first year of the deal. The new contract ranks 13th for NFL quarterbacks in total value and 10th for AAV. 
After serving as a full-time starting quarterback in his rookie and sophomore seasons, Smith, a second-round pick for the Jets in 2013, was seemingly relegated to backup duties. After backing up Ryan Fitzpatrick, Eli Manning, and Philip Rivers for the Jets, Giants, and Chargers, respectively, Smith finally wound up in Seattle to battle Paxton Lynch for the backup quarterback position behind Russell Wilson.
Smith spent the next three years as one of the more capable backups in the NFL, proving as much in 2021 during a four-game stretch that saw Smith throw for 702 yards, five touchdowns, and only one interception while replacing Wilson in surprisingly competitive contests. When Wilson was traded to the Broncos, Smith was given an opportunity to compete for the starting job with newly acquired Drew Lock, who came over in the Wilson trade.
Smith ended up winning Seattle’s starting job and rewarded the Seahawks with the best season of his career. In his first season as a starting quarterback in eight years, Smith led his team to the playoffs, earned a Pro Bowl bid, led the league in completion percentage, and won Comeback Player of the Year. Smith posted career-high numbers in passing yards (4,282) and passing touchdowns (30), and his interception total (11) was the lowest in any of his three seasons as a starter. Smith’s yardage total set a Seahawks record.
The well-traveled passer will now be under contract in Seattle through the 2025 season, during which he will turn 35. It’s good to see Smith make so much out of his second opportunity to start in the NFL. It will be exciting to see how much more he can make of it in the next three years.
Will be interesting to see the breakdown of the contract. Guaranteed money when they can get out of it with minimal cap hit. This isn’t outlandish just looking at the numbers. Hopefully the true numbers will make it even better.
Wow HOW RIDICULOUS. Paying a journeyman with 1 decent year that kind of $$$.
The new numbers seem much better for him. Still set for life and doesn’t ham string Seattle. Now time to decide if they want to trade draft QB or edge rusher. I am going with trade will be the outcome. Keep talking about a QB and teams will move up.
I hear people talking about Richardson because of his combine. Forget his name but the old white guy on PTI said Seattle should draft him at 5. I have heard he is a 2nd rnd guy at best. A big project 5 too high if you ask me. Even though no one is asking.
25 million a year? Literally an amazing deal
Apparently getting $52M in the first year.
First calendar year. That’ll be more than 2/3 the total guaranteed money, it appears.
Front-loading the contract when there’s cap space before going on a two-year win now campaign sounds clever and more imaginative than mortgaging the future of the team with void years and deferred contracts.
Looks like it is a 3 year 105 million. Don’t know breakdown per season etc.
I think we can assume that it is for 35/year. The question is, as our friend compassrose pointed out, what is the guaranteed dollars, and what is the cost of cutting him after the second year if it isn’t going well? 35 million is what it costs for a prow bowl QB, I guess. Glad it is over with.
That’s Holy Crap money for a guy on the downside of his career.
What career?!
When was his upside, last year at 31?
That’s a wow move but it has been since week 1 last year. Great story. Great for him.
9 years of being a backup to $100M deal; Great for him!
I’m so happy this 1 year fluke is going to sink the Hawks for the next couple years. Giving him 35 AAV obviously shows they don’t think that’s the case. Time will tell.
Doubtful, last year’s draft was incredible for the Seahawks and their future. Once you add the plethora or high picks from this year’s draft the future looks bright.
He’s a smart QB who doesn’t the ball over much.
I don’t think that Smith will live up to the contract either, but he seems to know his boundaries at this point in his career (versus his early days when he thought that rookie linebackers owed him for simply being rookies-see I.K. Enemkpali).
The contract money itself is not enormous. In comparison to other starting quarterbacks, it’s not enough to “sink” a franchise, at least AAV wise. Is Geno Smith worth approximately $35 million? No. Would it cost more to sign somebody who actually is at that level? Yes, unfortunately. The added bonus is that the Seahawks get to show that they’ll reward a player for having a good year for them, and it adds to a narrative that they’ve had for some time that they’re a team that has misfits or players that “nobody believed in” and excelled. That used to be the identity of those old Legion of Boom rosters, and something that Carroll liked to nurture in his players. Having your quarterback play into that narrative is positive for a mindset conscious coach like Carroll. I won’t speak as to the intrinsic truth of that idea, but the notion definitely contributes for how they’ve constructed the team’s identity.
What are you talking about? We drafted the LOB
Jealous much? It’s only 3 years lol. If he repeats next year (which I imagine he does) that leaves 2 years to find a future QB. It’s not like it’s a stupid Russell Wilson deal haha.
Looks more like 25 million AAV with incentives that could take the deal to 35 million AAV. Only 40 million of it is guaranteed.
Carroll’s last hurrah as Smith will be his demise after year 1.
There is no reason to think Smith won’t do well again.
Guessed Carr and guessed Geno 2/2 so far
Wow, those were gutsy calls
Basically gonna be structured as a 1 year deal and they’ll draft a QB.
With what cap space?!?!?!
They have a pretty solid cap situation?
With the cap space they’ll have for their draft picks.
Somewhere Daniel Jones is very happy.
Geno was better than Dimes last year
Wow, DJones got more than twice as much as Geno in guarantees! Geno was a much better QB than DJ last year. Seattle got a great deal for Geno!
Geno on this deal is far better than what Daniel Jones is asking, Seattle is gonna draft Richardson too, a nice build up to what’s next for them
Love a late career resurgence. Good for Geno
Let Geno cook!
I don’t see why the ‘Hawks didn’t just franchise tag Smith for $32.4 million for 1 year . . .
And the award for dumbest contract goes to…
^Led league in completion percentage.
Maybe you’d rather sign Lemar Jackson to his demands? What you expect?
Too bad he didn’t lead in playoff wins.
He had a great season with 3:1 TD/INT ratio and nearly 70% comp rate sure, but that season is the definition of fluke, outlier, or anomaly.
Good for him working hard and getting paid after all this time. I hope it works for him but I can see where anyone would be skeptical.
Why is it an outlier? He was never given a chance, with at least an ok team, until last season. It was his first real chance to show what he can do, and he did!
Mart, please read the definition of those three words then check his previous seasons vs his most recent.
Compared to the others, this is an outlier.
Macbeth
You did see the team we played in the first round right? That was going to be a tough win no matter what. Can’t blame that all on Geno. That is a very lazy comment.
Comp, it wasn’t supposed to be taken seriously. He played well this season as I stated earlier. But I think anyone would be skeptical of him replicating that same performance this year.
I am skeptical and have said that numerous times. I am not worried about this contract it is very team friendly.
My ultimate hope is they have a situation that a team really wants to move to their spot. There is a player left because Arz made a dumb pick. They move down with that pick and pick up a first next year. We can draft a DL or 2 in the 1st rnd. Then trade both picks to move up next year to get a QB. There seems to be more good ones in next draft.
We have great 1st and 2nd rnd picks moving down a bit will not hurt as much. If we can have half a good of draft as last year it will be awesome. There is a lot to like around here the QB is the biggest question mark. I love the draft and love it even more when hair talks bad about our draft then a few years later has to eat his words because he was so wrong.
Mac, he played really well in the 4 games he played the previous year while RW was out. Actually those 4 games were very comparable to last season. Pete has been talking up Geno ever since he first signed there so apparently Seattle has always thought he was capable of being a solid starting QB in the NFL. He was a top 10 QB last year and getting paid as a top 20 so I’ll take that contract any day. Lots of draft picks and lots of cap space looks good for Seattle’s future.
Until Lamar and Jones (neither of which are half the player) get markedly more AAV.
Lamar isn’t half the player as Geno? That’s extremely laughable.
He’s a phillies fan, forgive him.
You’re joking right? He has now had 1 1/2 years of elite production for the Seahawks. Who is now only paying him a base salary of 25 million a year.
Never forget this is the guy who broke the dumb Manning’s consecutive starts record.
It is his fault the coach put him in? Come on you guys are smarter than this. Do you bad mouth the guy who started for Cal Ripken? Even though he asked to sit. Never a players fault when they stop a record like that.
I don’t understand why some of those commenting are bitter when a player gets rewarded for his persistence and hard work. The NFL seems to be drowning in scandals so we should celebrate those rare “feel good’ stories when they come along.
52 Is wild even for a year.
This is like when Jimmy G got paid $42 million in 2018. The 49ers were lumping as much money as they could into a time when they had room in the cap for it.
Oh yeah I’m not really mad at it, and understand why. They probably draft a QB let him sit and offload Geno next year, it’s smart. Just still seeing 52M for a season is wild. I like the move and Geno though, even though there’s risk.
I’m definitely happy for Geno. And hey, maybe they’re the team to take Richardson. They let him sit and play sub packages for two years, pick up some pocket passing fundamentals from Geno, and then take over.
Cinderella turned into a pumpkin toward the end of last year, now Seattle is paying the ugly step sister Cinderella money.
Saw something that it’s only $40M guaranteed, which isn’t awful if true.
“Gee, thanks for the update…”
-The New York Giants
25 million AAV sounds better than the 35 Million first reported. Either way, good deal for both sides. 40 million guaranteed dollars is not a ton of money to have Geno under contract. It’s better than the 40 million AAV that the Giants gave Jones! Yikes!!
That’s a lot of Pizza Rolls for Geno !!
Pizza Rolls were originated by Jeno Paulucci in Minnesota after having created Chun King Chinese foods and he was also credited with creating one of the first national brands of frozen pizza. His main competitor in the “cheap” frozen pizza business was Totinos. Both Jenos & Totinos got sold to Pillsbury, who dropped the brand name “Jeno” from its products and re-christened them all as Totinos. That is why the Pizza Roll product is not named Jenos.
Love seeing Geno get the bag! Hard work pays off! Why can’t people in the comments be happy for him? He was really good for most of the year. Holy **** Jim Boeheim just “retired” and they already named a new coach.
Anyway good for Geno. Buck Nasty haters stop hating.
People seem too forget he had a great stretch of games 2 years ago when Wilson was hurt. So he. Has actually demonstrated this new skill level for more then 1 year. I’ll always be happy signing the QB with the highest completion percentage in all of the NFL