It’s double full circle.
For Geno Smith. And for the Jets, including as they relate to the Seahawks’ recent past and present.
A year ago at this time, Smith was a one-time journeyman backup coming off a 4,000-yard campaign and his second consecutive Pro Bowl season with the Seahawks.
Then, Smith could never have fathomed his next 12 months.
Exactly one year ago last Sunday, the Seahawks pivoted away from Smith’s demands for a new contract. They traded him. Pete Carroll, his former coach in Seattle, acquired Smith to be the Las Vegas Raiders’ new starter.
The Seahawks quickly signed Sam Darnold in free agency to replace Smith.
Smith had the worst season of his 13-year career in 2025. He went 2-13 for the Raiders. It was his fewest wins and most losses in any season of football. He threw a league-high 17 interceptions.
His former Seahawks won the Super Bowl with Darnold as their quarterback instead of him.
In January, the Raiders fired Carroll. Last month Las Vegas hired Klint Kubiak, the offensive coordinator that called Darnold’s plays in Seattle this past season, to replace Carroll.
Tuesday, Smith’s whiplash 12 months snapped him all the way back to where his NFL journey began — poorly.
On the second day of the league’s free-agency negotiating period, Kubiak’s Raiders traded the 35-year-old Smith to the New York Jets. The Jets drafted Smith as a 22-year-old out of West Virginia in 2013. Smith went 12-18 for them in two, lost seasons as New York’s starter.
To get the Jets to take him plus a sixth-round draft choice, the Raiders sent New York a seventh-round pick and are paying all but $3 million of Smith’s 2026 contract they signed him to last March. The Raiders will pay $16.2 million for Smith to play for the Jets this year. Smith is actually getting a raise out of all of it, from his scheduled $18.5 million guaranteed to $19.5 million for the 2026 season.
Smith texted his reaction to the trade and his return to the Jets to Albert Breer of The Monday Morning Quarterback: “Complete full circle moment. Looking forward to connecting with my teammates and coaches and building a new relationship with the fans.”
The Jets have had 18 different starting quarterbacks in the nine seasons since they let Smith’s contract expire.
The sixth of those 18 different Jets QBs?
Darnold, in 2018 as a rookie. He was the third pick in that year’s draft, by New York.
Restricted free agents set free?
Wednesday at 1 p.m. is the start of the new league year. That’s when the Raiders’ trade of Smith to the Jets will become official.
It’s when the free-agent contracts of Kenneth Walker (signing with the Chiefs), Coby Bryant (with the Bears), Boye Mafe (with the Bengals) and Riq Woolen (with the Eagles) will be announced by their new teams. That will make them all former Seahawks.
Wednesday at 1 p.m. is also the deadline for Seattle to tender its restricted free agents contract offers for 2026. If they don’t, wide receivers Jake Bobo and Cody White, nose tackle Brandon Pili, special-teams ace Brady Russell, defensive back A.J. Finley and long snapper Chris Stoll will become unrestricted free agents able to sign with any team.
The Seahawks would like to bring many if not all of them back on new contracts that would have more team-friendly (lower) salary-cap numbers for 2026 than the mandated tender-offer values would be.
The Seahawks have three players from their Super Bowl-winning team who will become unrestricted free agents officially on Wednesday and have yet to reach agreements on contracts with a team. They are reserve offensive tackle Josh Jones, wide receiver Dareke Young and special-teams linebacker Chazz Surratt.
Josh Jobe officially signs
Cornerback Josh Jobe signed his three-year contract worth $24 million on Tuesday, a day after he agreed to return to the Seahawks rather than sign elsewhere in free agency.
The Seahawks chose Jobe, undrafted out of college and a Seahawks waiver signing from Philadelphia at the end of the 2024 preseason. Coach Mike Macdonald loves Jobe’s man-to-man coverage skills over paying Woolen. Woolen got $15 million on a one-year contract from the Eagles instead.
Jobe got validation of a long, unheralded path to his new, generational wealth.
He was on the Seahawks’ practice squad to begin the 2024 season. Now he’s about to earn $8 million a year.
“It means a lot,” Jobe told John Boyle of the team’s website Tuesday. “Throughout my years in the NFL, it’s been hard for me. Since going undrafted, I’ve overcome a lot of adversity. This deal means a lot, and I’m excited to be back.”