The Seattle Seahawks made the big decision to trade Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders in exchange for a third-round pick. Smith reportedly wanted to be paid $45 million/year, which I must stress is not even top-10 quarterback money in terms of average, and the Seahawks weren’t willing to meet that number.
One of the storylines regarding the trade in itself is the fact that Smith will get to reunite with new Raiders head coach Pete Carroll, who gave him his shot to be the starter in Seattle after the Russell Wilson trade. For better or worse, from the moment Carroll became Seahawks head coach he has had a soft spot for believing in written off NFL Draft disappointments. Seattle literally won an NFC West title on a Charlie Whitehurst touchdown pass to Mike Williams.
But the Smith-Carroll reunion on another team also, at least to me, signifies the real end of the Carroll Era in Seattle.
If my argument was used in the most literal sense, I’m extremely incorrect. Not only is most of this roster comprised of players who were acquired when Carroll was still here, but Carroll hired Schneider to be his general manager. Pete’s role as the one with the final say over roster control meant that this was not necessarily a traditional GM-head coach partnership. Schneider with full control of everything is, in itself, a different situation than when Carroll was around. I suppose the Pete era truly ends for Seattle when there are no players left from any of his draft classes and Schneider is gone for whatever reason. That’s a really boring way for my entire op-ed to collapse.
Symbolically speaking, however, Smith represents the end of any direct link between the Seahawks’ starting quarterback position and Pete Carroll. Pete inherited Matt Hasselbeck and didn’t re-sign him in 2011. Charlie Whitehurst, Pete’s first QB investment, never developed into a starter. Tarvaris Jackson, may he rest in peace, was always a one-year stopgap and evolved into a backup role while he was still with the team. Russell Wilson is long gone and the only way I see him returning to the Seahawks is to sign a one-day contract to announce his retirement. Geno Smith’s story doesn’t happen without Pete believing that he could run the offense.
I’ve sensed over the years that some of the more hostile feelings toward Geno are indirectly about Pete Carroll, both for Smith even being the starter and for Russell Wilson being gone. Smith has been viewed in some respects as a hindrance to getting a young franchise quarterback. It was almost as if to say that in order for the Seahawks to become contenders again and not be stuck in the sea of mediocrity, they needed a clean break from “Pete’s guys” in addition to Pete. For as much as we’ve debated “Pete guys” and “John guys” and “Pete and John guys” over the years, Geno stood out as a clear “Pete guy” given his effusive public praise was markedly different from the more typically reserved remarks from John Schneider.
And so we embark on a proper new era of Seahawks football. One where Mike Macdonald will no longer be trying to win with Pete’s quarterback. He’ll be trying to win with his own quarterback—it’s not like he’ll have zero input on a replacement—while continuing to reconstruct a defense filled mainly with Carroll’s players but used in a different system. But the hallmark of most great teams is their head coach/quarterback combo, and now it’s a real reset with this trade materializing. I can sense the relief from some Seahawks fans who’ve wanted both gone for quite some time.
The Pete and Geno era, meanwhile, is (re)starting and has even taken up a Vegas residency.