4 potential landing spots for Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith this offseason
Geno Smith has a good year in 2022 for the Seattle Seahawks. Compared to any other season in his NFL career, Smith was unbelievably good. That’s part of the issue moving forward with Smith. Do teams, including Seattle, believe he can be just as good in future seasons?
There are as always a bunch of teams that need quarterbacks. Several teams might be a decent quarterback away from being a playoff contender. While some of these teams will find their future quarterbacks in the NFL draft, some teams also have the cap room to bring in someone like Smith.
New York Jets
There are probably some bad feelings from Geno Smith toward the team that drafted him, the New York Jets. But an easy way for a team to overcome bad blood is to pay a player a lot of money. And if the 2022 Jets had the 2022 version of Geno Smith playing for them this year, the Jets would not only have likely made the playoffs, they would be a very dangerous team.
Jets is stacked on defense with some young talent on offense but zero talent at quarterback. New York is currently tight against the cap for next season but they also have some players they could release or re-work and create extra cap room. If New York releases Carl Lawson, for instance, the Jets could save $15 million.
If Smith were to go to New York Jets, they would likely be the team expected to finish second behind the Buffalo Bills in the AFC East. That should be good enough to make the playoffs. And once in the playoffs, the Jets’ defense is good enough to win close games, especially with a quarterback as good as Geno Smith
Tennessee Titans
The Titans defense is nice against the run and bad against the pass. Offensively, Tennessee can run extremely well, but can’t throw well at all. It also doesn’t help that now-fired general manager Jon Robinson made the bone-headed move of not working out an extension with receiver AJ Brown.
One of the easiest ways for Tennessee to get back to its 2021 level is to add a good quarterback, which Geno Smith is. The Titans drafted Malik Willis in the third round of the 2022 draft, but Willis would greatly benefit from Smith. If Tennessee signed Smith to a two-year deal, Willis would have a year left after Smith’s deal ended. Willis always needed a bit of time to learn how to be an NFL quarterback.
Geno Smith can would put Tennessee back in the playoff hunt, the Jaguars are getting better too in the AFC South, but with Geno Smith, Tennessee might be better in 2023 and in 2024. The Titans might not be a Super Bowl contender adding Geno Smith, but they’d be a lot closer than they currently are. Tennessee would need to release Ryan Tannehill, but doing so could free up $18 million and releasing Robert Woods would save $12 million.
Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons have a young quarterback in Desmond Ridder who could be OK, but he seems more like a backup than an NFL starter. And the Falcons also has good cap space and good draft capital, much like Seattle.
Atlanta also plays in a division where it should be easier to catch up to the division leaders than a team that plays in the NFC West, for instance. No team in the NFC South had a winning record this year. Tom Brady will not return to the Buccaneers and while they won the division with an 8-9 record, they will be markedly worse in 2023. Carolina might be better, but they don’t have much cap space and the Saints are stuck in cap hell even more. The Falcons weren’t an awful team in 2022. They went 7-10, but with a young roster that should get better.
With Geno Smith, the Falcons could conceivably be a playoff team in 2023 in the division they are in. Plus, the Falcons have decent draft capital for the next two years. Smith could be a bridge between now and the Falcons’ future quarterback, and Atlanta can afford to pay him well.
Seattle Seahawks
What should the Seahawks do at quarterback? They could draft a pretty good one at number 5 overall in the 2023 draft. Would it be a surprise if general manager John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll decided to do that? Not really. Schneider and Carroll have been perfect for more than a decade at shocking people with what they do in the draft.
In 2023, Schneider and Carroll need to do the same thing they did in 2022. That is, draft a potentially very good player at a position of need. Were some people surprised that Seattle chose running back Ken Walker in the second round? But most 12s probably weren’t because Seahawks’ running back room for the 2022 season was iffy beyond the oft-injured Rashaad Penny.
If Seattle, should it re-sign Geno Smith to something around $25 million or so, needs to build the team around the quarterback. The Seahawks need an interior defensive lineman who can create chaos, like Jalen Carter, or a dynamic playmaker on defense, like Will Anderson.
Either way and before the 2023 draft, Smith needs to be re-signed by the Seahawks for two seasons at $27 million a season with a guarantee of $30 million and an option for the 2025 season. The team can afford this and needs to draft other positions of need.
