Seahawks and Geno Smith were far apart on figures for a new contract

When the Seattle Seahawks sent Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos it took everybody off-guard. At the time it seemed like a foolish knee-jerk reaction to send away a top-10 quarterback who'd performe at a high level for almost a decade in the NFL. Practically every analyst gave the Seahawks no better than a C grade for the deal.

Fast forward three years and we now know that Wilson's best days were far behind him and he'd never again approach the almost-MVP level he'd performed at occasionally when he was at his best. The Seahawks got out at just the right time before Wilson's decline really started to show, and best of all they avoided paying him a massive new contract that would have averaged over $50 million a year. Denver did that deal, and it might go down as the worst contract of all time.

By comparison Geno Smith probably has a lot more good football left in him, and the return they got in the trade is nowhere near the haul that Wilson brought in. However, there is a very strong argument that Seattle is getting out at the right time with Smith the same as Russ - because it seems the two sides were pretty far apart on a dollar amount for a new contract.

According to Albert Breer at Sports Illustrated, Smith's reps wanted his new deal to average $45 million a year. Meanwhile, the Seahawks wanted it closer to $35 million.

The @Seahawks and Geno Smith were far apart in negotiations—with Seattle closer to around $35 million per and Smith's camp around $45 million per. That precipitated the trade to the @Raiders.

Smith's reunited with @PeteCarroll there.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) March 8, 2025

There's certainly a case to meet in the middle and agree to a deal around $40 million per year, but given Smith's age and the team's overall situation it made more sense to hit the reset button on offense.

The most important thing to keep in mind about this deal is that the Seahawks were not going to compete for a Super Bowl with Geno Smith as their starter - not unless they magically were able to find four new high-quality starters for their offensive line and Smith managed to permanently shed the turnover issues that have been a problem throughout his NFL career to varying degrees.

Every time the Seahawks faced a legitimate championship contender over the last three seasons the same thing happened: they got whooped. The worst of it came in 2023 when the Baltimore Ravens spanked them on both sides of the line of scrimmage en route to a 37-3 blowout win. That should have been enough to convince anyody that Seattle as presently constructed wasn't going to win a ring anytime soon. The Detroit Lions reinforced that message with a dominant Week 4 win this past season, and several other heavyweights have done the same.

Paying Geno Smith another deal would have amounted to being satsified with more nine and 10-win seasons, which leaves Seattle stuck in that no man's land between missing the playoffs and getting blown out in the Wild Card round. That's the worst possible place for an NFL franchise to be in and the Seahawks front office is right to reject being satisfied with being a "good" but not a great team indefinitely.

This trade with the Raiders will be evaluated based on how the Seahawks rebound and rebuild from here, but the process that led to the deal is correct.

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