In what has been a jaw-dropping offseason already in the NFL, even with the new 2025 league year technically still five days away, the trade of Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith to the Raiders for the scant price of a third-round pick ranks as a true stunner.
The Seahawks were obviously not settled on Smith as their guy going forward, but it appeared likely that they were content enough with him that they'd keep him on the books for 2025, and perhaps even extend him.
Instead, in a week in which they cut receiver Tyler Lockett and put star receiver DK Metcalf on the trade block, the Seahawks decided to wash their hands of Smith, too.
Smith was coming off a very good year in which he went 10-7 at the helm in Seattle, throwing for 4,320 yards and 21 touchdowns, though with 15 interceptions. Smith posted a 70.4% completion rate, among the best in the NFL, but was sacked a jaw-dropping 50 times.
The move clears out Smith's $31 million contract, and Spotrac projects that Smith is likely to get a two-year extension worth $86 million from the Raiders. But the Seahawks would be left with quarterback Sam Howell, at least for now, as their top passer.
Smith, a former second-round pick of the Jets and the team's starter in his first two seasons, washed out in New York and did not get a chance to take over in Seattle until 2022, his ninth seaosn in the NFL. He was a Pro Bowler that year and the next, and will now reunite with former Seattle coach Pete Carroll in Las Vegas.
But the Seahawks quarterback situation is a wide-open question mark. Even Richard Sherman, a player synonymous with the Seahawks' defensive heyday, when the unit was known as the "Legion of Boom" and won the Super Bowl in 2014, openly questioned what's going on.
Wow. Trading Geno?! Must be a plan that we don't know about.
— Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) March 8, 2025
"Wow. Trading Geno?! Must be a plan that we don't know about," Sherman wrote on Twitter/X.
The Seahawks will, at least, have an extra third-round pick and more than $60 million in cap space to implement that plan.
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This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 8:26 PM.