'Heck Yeah!': Seahawks, Pete Carroll Confident in Super Bowl Chances with Geno Smith
Rewarding their Pro Bowl quarterback for a remarkable breakthrough season, the Seattle Seahawks locked up Geno Smith on Monday with a three-year, $105 million extension, tying him to the organization through 2025.
With the ink still drying on Smith's contract, which could be worth up to $35 million per year and will pay out $40 million in guarantees, coach Pete Carroll couldn't have been happier about Seattle striking a deal with the 2022 Comeback Player of the Year. Speaking for the first time since the contract became official with Brock Huard and Mike Salk of Seattle Sports 710, he said hammering things out before the start of free agency was important for both the franchise and player.
"We got it done in a timely fashion. We're ahead of free agency, which we needed to do and everybody's thrilled about it," Carroll remarked, crediting owner Jodie Allen for giving the front office the leeway to facilitate an extension. "It’s a good deal for the club, a really good message to everybody on the outside that this is a good place and things are going in the right direction and we’re fired up about it."
Putting together one of the most improbable story book seasons in NFL history after serving as a backup for seven seasons with three different teams, Smith beat out Drew Lock to succeed long-time starter Russell Wilson during training camp. Once the team took the training wheels off after the first two games, he thrived under center orchestrating coordinator Shane Waldron's offense.
Steering the Seahawks to a surprising playoff berth and becoming only the second quarterback in NFL history to make his first Pro Bowl in year 10 or later, Smith led the league with a 69.8 percent completion rate, the highest percentage for a quarterback in team history for a single season. He also joined Wilson and Dave Krieg as the only players in franchise history to throw 30 touchdown passes in a season and finished in the top five in that category.
In addition, Smith broke Wilson's previous single season record passing for 4,282 yards, led the league with 14 touchdown passes of 20 or more yards, and tied Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes with 12 games throwing two or more touchdown passes. He accomplished these feats while throwing only 11 interceptions and finishing in the top five in passer rating.
But beyond his gaudy statistics, Carroll pointed to Smith's confidence and the way he handled himself replacing Wilson as the main reason Seattle chose to invest long-term in him.
“His view, his perspective throughout was so clear and consistent, and he was so confident and he backed it up," Carroll said. "He backed it up with his words, he backed it up with his actions, and his teammates know. Every aspect of it, it just worked out really, really well. And this was hard for him. It was a huge challenge, the challenge of a lifetime, and he came through. And to see him handling it so well, we marveled at that. But then he never wavered, so it just gave us all the confidence to continue on.”
With the franchise tag deadline looming on Tuesday, Seattle faced the prospect of Smith potentially hitting the market as one of the top free agents available on March 15. But all along, both sides remained motivated to strike a deal and after initially offering $25 million per year over three years, the organization offered additional incentives and guarantees to sweeten the pot and lead to an agreement.
As details about the contract continue to trickle in, Carroll confirmed that Smith's extension features an incentive-laden structure that will allow him to earn top-10 quarterback money, saying the veteran is "gambling a little bit in that sense on himself."
"We're counting on him coming through and doing the things he was able to do last year," Carroll added. "If he does that, he's going to get rewarded and we know if he's able to come back and do that, he's gonna have a great season and we're gonna be in great shape. We're gonna have a real chance to be at our best."
Now that the Seahawks have ensured Smith will be back under center before free agency begins, Carroll has grandiose visions of where the franchise is headed moving forward, with last year's wild card berth being a stepping stone to bigger and better things ahead. When asked if the veteran signal caller could guide his team to a Super Bowl, the energetic coach expressed great confidence in him being able to do so.
"Heck yeah we can!" Carroll said emphatically. "He's going to do his part. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of stuff we have to get done. We have a lot of decisions to make."
As Carroll indicated, for the Seahawks to reach their potential after sneaking into the playoffs last season, they have to hit the ball out of the park in a critical offseason to continue building and improving the roster around the quarterback.
This process will start with free agency a little over a week from now and while Carroll admitted they don't have a ton of financial flexibility after signing Smith, kicker Jason Myers, and a couple other impending free agents, they have enough wiggle room to still add some quality talent. But they will have to be "really smart, really judicious" with how they allocate their remaining cap space and other moves such as cap casualties and extensions may need to be done to create additional flexibility.
More importantly, Seattle has an abundance of draft capital to bolster the team in April. Holding the No. 5 overall pick acquired as part of the Wilson trade with Denver along with three other selections in the first 52 picks and 10 picks overall, Schneider and Carroll have all the cards in the deck to infuse the roster with blue chip talent at positions of need for the present and future.
Even with Smith under contract, as insinuated by Carroll, the Seahawks could still consider drafting a quarterback with their top selection. Or, depending how the first four picks in front of them unfold, they could land a dynamic pass rusher to fortify a defense that struggled for most of the 2022 season. All options remain on the table, which is an ideal situation for any franchise to be in going into the draft.
Keeping this in mind, the critical importance of the next two months on Seattle's trajectory cannot be understated. With Smith now back in the fold and plenty of resources available to strengthen the roster in free agency and the draft, Carroll sees a clear path to jump from a fringe playoff team to a legitimate title contender in the NFC if the franchise can seize the opportunity.
"We're gonna be wise about it and make really good decisions that are going to fit us. We're deep, deep into that and I can't talk about any of it, but we're deep into it right now and we've been working on this for weeks, so it's an exciting time that's coming up."
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