After the Seahawks traded quarterback Geno Smith to the Raiders, Seattle General Manager John Schneider stated that the team had made an offer to Smith, but it wasn’t “a very long negotiation.”
In reality, there wasn’t any negotiation. Smith told Albert Breer of SI.com that his agents didn’t even make a counteroffer to the Seahawks.
The issue wasn’t the money, which was “well shy” of the desired annual salary. The problem lay in the structure of the deal, which didn’t guarantee payments beyond the first year. This allowed the Seahawks to maintain flexibility with Smith from year to year.
The same flexibility applies to his successor, Sam Darnold.
Then came the Raiders—and more importantly, Pete Carroll. With Carroll not coaching in the NFL in 2024, he had no restrictions on speaking with Smith, about anything.
And that’s exactly what they did.
Smith explained to Breer, “I would call him whenever I got frustrated. He talked me through things, and he still coached me. I think that’s what makes him such a special person, coaching me even when he wasn’t my head coach. A lot of what he told me and the conversations we had really kept me grounded throughout the season and helped me stay focused. I gave everything to that team.”
Smith was frustrated last year, partly because he didn’t get an extension from the Seahawks. There was nothing preventing Carroll and Smith from discussing a potential partnership in 2025 if Carroll were to land another job.
Such an arrangement wouldn’t have broken any rules, as long as they stopped communicating after Carroll took the Las Vegas job. Now, Smith and Carroll are reunited, and Smith has secured the new contract he didn’t receive from Seattle.
However, Smith now faces a tougher challenge. Even if the Seahawks and Raiders have similar talent overall, the AFC West is much more competitive than the NFC West.
Both Smith and Carroll will be under pressure to turn things around quickly.
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