Seahawks quarterback Genea Smith (7) responds to chants of “Genea, Genea, Genea” from the crowd as he walks off the field after Seattle’s 17-16 win over Denver in an NFL game Monday, Sept. 12, 2022, at Lumen Field in Seattle.
Pete Custer/The News Tribune
Geno Smith didn’t want to go anywhere.
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The Seahawks ensured he didn’t.
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The team that made the seven-year NFL backup last season Russell Wilson’s replacement in Seattle and the 32-year-old veteran who became a Pro Bowl quarterback last season agreed to a three-year contract extension Monday. It ties Smith to Seattle through the 2025 season.
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The deal is worth up to $105 million, per multiple reports.
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It appears the deal is front-loaded, with the Seahawks able to get out of it between the second and third years if Smith does not sustain his level of play. Smith will get nearly half of his contract value, $52 million, this year. That’s in a signing bonus, guarantees and salary for the 2023 season.
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The Seahawks confirmed Monday night they had an agreement with Smith.
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“Thank You Lord,” Smith posted on his Twitter account, with a hands-pressed emoji to portray thankfulness.
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He has 45 million reasons to be thankful.
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Months after acknowledging he could have been out of the league if coach Pete Carroll, general manager John Schneider and the Seahawks hadn’t given him this chance, Smith goes from $3.5 million in base salary and $7 million total with bonuses last season to $52 million in 2023.
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A league source told The News Tribune a league deadline for teams to use the franchise tag for pending free agents by Tuesday spurred the Seahawks’ agreement with Smith Monday.
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Smith said last month at the Pro Bowl it “looked very good” for him re-signing with Seattle.
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He said in January after the team’s playoff loss at San Francisco he wants to retire with the Seahawks.
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“I want to finish my career in Seattle,” he said immediately following his first career playoff start and season of breaking three of Wilson’s Seahawks records for passing.
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Smith earned the first Pro Bowl selection of his 10-year career this past season. The Associated Press’ panel of 50 national voters selected him as the NFL comeback player of the year.
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“I want to be here, Smith said in January. “The town, the city, the team, Coach Carroll, the organization, they all embraced me. I was a guy who probably could have been out of the league. They embraced me.
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“I want to re-pay them for that.”
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Monday, he did.
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“This was really an incredible experience with a young guy that did some amazing things,” Carroll said last week at the league’s scouting combine in Indianapolis. “It’s such a good story and it’s just a real story. It really happened right before our eyes, a guy that kind of got knocked around and kind of got lost in the shuffle after a while….
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“Then the way he handled it with such class, character, makeup and competitiveness and, you know, beautiful come-through and athleticism, all that stuff is all part of the story.
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“I think my favorite part of it though is how he handled it, that he was able to take this moment and capture it and he opened up to the club in terms of his leadership opportunities, and it was almost impeccably handled, orchestrated right out of the book.
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“Exactly how you’d like it to be.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2023 7:29 p.m.
