Everything the Seahawks do in the media is deliberate.
Last year they weren’t being non-committal over Geno Smith — while constantly changing the subject to Drew Lock during press-conferences — for a laugh. I think it’s pretty clear they wanted to try and persuade Lock to return and felt the best way to do that was to promote him publicly and give the impression he could compete to win a job in Seattle. It didn’t work and he signed for the Giants.
It wasn’t the only reason for their messaging, though. The not-so-subtle reporting from Adam Schefter, discussing Smith’s value to potential trade suitors over his contract, was as close to a ‘come and get him’ plea to the rest of the league as you can get. They were clearly open to offers. Then, once the combine had come and gone and presumably nobody took the bait, suddenly the Seahawks pivoted and started promoting Smith as the unchallenged starter.
This year, we’re seeing very different messaging. Mike Macdonald’s recent interview with Fox-13 was fairly emphatic. He said Smith was their guy and he believed they could win a Super Bowl with him. At the conclusion of the Super Bowl the Seahawks then tweeted this from their official account. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Smith is front and centre in the image.
Is the purpose of this simply to try and eliminate questions about Smith’s future? Is it a definitive commitment to the quarterback?
Or is there something else going on?
Here’s my best guess…
Firstly, I think there has to be more to this than simply a firm commitment. We all accept the Seahawks are going to enter into negotiations with Smith and his representatives in order to work out a new contract. Nobody expects them just to throw money at Smith and this is going to have to be a compromise agreement to lower his cap-hit in 2025 and retain annual outs and flexibility for the team.
I sense that the Seahawks feel a public show of support is the best thing for the forthcoming talks. A repeat of last year could be thrown back at them. It’s easier to say ‘we want you here, we’ve made that clear — but it has to be on our terms’.
In many ways it could be similar to what they tried with Lock 12 months ago, albeit they’ll hope with a different conclusion.
I have to believe there’s a bit of this going on otherwise Macdonald’s words would simply serve as fantastic leverage for Smith’s camp when it comes to talks.
Secondly, I don’t think there’s any misdirection here or any attempt to barter leverage in trade talks. They’d find it really hard to be this publicly supportive and committed to Geno Smith and then turn around a few weeks later and say, ‘ah yeah, about that, we’re now moving him’. The language Macdonald used is not ‘we have no intention of trading him’ ala Russell Wilson. He was unequivocal in his backing for Smith staying in Seattle and I think he was being honest. Smith isn’t going anywhere short of a big breakdown in talks.
I believe they fully intend to strike a deal and as noted for some time now, my expectation is they will. It will need to be a compromised arrangement though. They’re not going to give Smith a deal that locks him in as the starter beyond 2025, especially given he turns 35 in October.
Thirdly, I do think there’s something else at play here that I’ve not seen discussed anywhere else. It plays off my hunch that this is the year the Seahawks will finally draft a quarterback.
If there are one or more QB’s they are targeting in the draft, it makes absolute sense to make it seem to the rest of the league that Geno Smith is 100% the guy. Other teams might not buy it, especially if the new contract structure contains year-to-year flexibility. If you want to try and throw teams off the scent though, so that they’re less suspicious of you being in the quarterback market, it makes sense to have the Head Coach come out and announce that you have complete and total faith in the incumbent.
Again, I’m not saying Macdonald fibbed for leverage in the draft. I think he truly believes what he said. Yet the added advantage of having consistent messaging supporting Smith in the media is it might cast doubt in the minds of some teams that you might take their guy at quarterback on day two.
Signing Matt Flynn in 2012 probably did more than anything to help the Seahawks make other teams think they weren’t going to take one in round three of the draft. They didn’t sign Flynn purely for this reason (obviously). It was an added bonus though and they caught many off guard when they selected Russell Wilson in round three.
The same can be said for this current situation. Re-signing Geno Smith to a new deal and taking every opportunity to promote him to the media could be a good plan to get to the position the Seahawks want to be in. That is — having Smith as the starter, while bridging to a younger quarterback taken in the draft.
As I’ve said a few times now, I think there will be a middle-class of quarterbacks in 2025. I also think there are quarterbacks the Seahawks will be interested in. I don’t think it’s out of the question that their messaging in the media this week is about making Smith feel wanted and more open-minded to a compromise agreement, while also trying to conceal their interest in drafting a quarterback as a future replacement.
