Apr 16, 2024, 12:00 ET
Geno Smith looks to improve under coach Mike Macdonald, but the pressure on him could intensify if the Seahawks draft another QB.
RENTON, Wash. — The basketball hoop in the auditorium of the Virginia Mason Athletic Center, a fixture during the Pete Carroll era and perhaps the most prominent symbol of it on the building, is no longer there.
The Seattle Seahawks are not erasing all traces of their former coach head of the team headquarters, but They won’t let Mike Macdonald address his players every day with a reminder of his predecessor literally hanging over his head.
The absence of hoops will take some getting used to, like having a new coach after Carroll’s 14 years at the helm.
“That was the strangest thing,” quarterback Geno Smith admitted. “because I actually walked up there to grab a basketball and I was like, ‘It’s not even there.'”
Geno Smith (pictured) is looking to improve under coach Mike Macdonald, but the pressure on him could intensify if the Seahawks draft another QB. Wesley Hitt/Getty Images
Smith spoke to reporters last week when players from the Seahawks returned to the facility for the start of their offseason program. Voluntary training marks the unofficial beginning of the Macdonald eraand arguably no one has more at stake with a new coach than Smith.
Consider that Carroll was perhaps Smith’s biggest supporter in the buildingthe person who named him the starter in 2022 even though much of the organization expected Drew Lock to win the job, a decision that set the stage for Smith’s resurgent season, and then defended him at every turn during his up-and-down 2023. Consider also that the authority overPersonnel decisions in the Seahawks’ post-Carroll power structure now belongs to general manager John Schneider, who recently traded for Sam Howell and has spoken openly about the possibility. to select another quarterback in next week’s NFL draft.
While Carroll cited the quarterback as a team strength in his end-of-season comments, both Macdonald and Schneider initially seemed evasive toward Smith before declaring him the starter once they acquired Howell.
In fact, A lot of things changed for Smith when Carroll was fired.
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“That day is a day that I’ll probably remember forever just because of how things happened for me here,” said Smith, who was among the team employees who packed the auditorium for Carroll’s emotional farewell news conference on Jan. 10. “Obviously, Coach Carroll, a big influence on my career, helped me a lot when I came to this organization and really…it put me in the spotlight I’m in now. So for me it was… just a terrible moment. Seeing someone I love so much have to part with him.
“But that’s the way it is NFLthat’s just the way it is and I’m very excited about what we have here now and the direction we are going“.
Despite the bad moments that Smith and the Seattle offense experienced last season, finished 14th in QBR (59.5). That was down from seventh (62.8) in 2022, when made the Pro Bowl on the initial ballot and won the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award.
While the offensive line remains a question mark after struggling in 2023, there are reasons to be optimistic about Smith’s prospects for a bounce-back season. After finishing 2023 with the best QBR in the NFL (81.5) over the past six weeks, all four of their top targets will return, with Seattle re-signing tight end Noah Fant and agreeing to a restructured deal with catcher Tyler Lockett.
The Seahawks will run a new scheme under Ryan Grubb, who oversaw one of the country’s most prolific offenses as the University of Washington’s offensive coordinator the past two seasons. The Huskies scored 36.7 offensive points per game during that time, sixth in the FBS. Seattle could improve the interior of their underperforming line by selecting Troy Fautanu, who starred for Grubb and new OL coach Scott Huff at UW and has been a popular mock pick for Seattle at pick No. 16.
“I’d say it’s pretty complex,” Smith said of Grubb’s offense. “There’s a lot of volume. A lot of talk. A lot of different plays. A lot of different concepts, protections and all that stuff. That is something good”.
Geno Smith, quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks. AP Photo
Smith, 33, lThere are two years left on a three-year, $75 million contract he signed last March. The Seahawks created $4.8 million in cap space in February when they converted their $9.6 million March roster bonus into a signing bonus. That increased his 2025 cap number to $38.5 million, which could rise up to $15 million more with the escalators linked to Smith’s performance and the Seahawks this season.
When asked if there was ever a time this offseason when Thought he wouldn’t remain in Seattle in 2024, Smith replied: “Not at all.”
The Seahawks were never going to cut Smith before his $12.7 million base salary He will be fully guaranteed on February 16, but there have been signs suggesting they could have been open to trading him before free agency. They first publicly committed to Smith as a starter in 2024 not until they traded for Howell four days into the negotiating period, by which time the most realistic window to trade him had closed.
While the Seahawks have made it clear that Howell is the backup, Schneider said at the combine that he “absolutely” believes he is a number one caliber quarterback.noting that he is only 23 years old and has 18 starts in his career.
“New coaching staff, old coaching staff: I have everything to prove”Smith said. “That’s how it is every day. That’s how I wake up every day. I’m competing with Sam. I know he’s competing with me. I want to compete to the death. I’m competing with everyone in this building to be my best, so I really I don’t look at it any other way.”
Part of the Seahawks’ motivation for acquiring Howell after losing Lock to the New York Giants in free agency, according to Schneider, was that they felt their flexibility to trade in the draft would be limited since they do not currently possess a second-round pick. But taking a quarterback next week, perhaps even sometime on Day 2, is still not out of the question.
During his Seattle Sports 710-AM radio show last week, Schneider confirmed reports that the Seahawks recently welcomed Bo Nix from Oregon and Spencer Rattler from South Carolina, who are projected to be chosen in the second and third rounds, respectively, in the latest alternate mock draft by ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. and Field Yates, in “30 visits” to the VMAC. He joked that they still do their homework on quarterback prospects despite drafting only two in his 14 years in Seattle.
“Spencer is a really awesome guy and so is Bo,” Schneider said. “We just wanted to be able to spend a little more time with those guys, so the coaches could spend a little more time with them on the board. You also have to be cautious with their time. They are here on visits to the West Coast, so that we try to configure them when They visit the Rams, Los Angeles Chargers or the San Francisco 49ers and we try to include them.
“We love Sam (Howell), we love what we did by being able to acquire Sam. “We talk about age, he has the experience, but that doesn’t exclude us from what we do in the draft.”
If Schneider and Macdonald invest an early pick in a quarterback, the question of Smith’s future in Seattle beyond 2024 It would become even more interesting.
“I just have that growth mindset,” Smith saidquoting one of Macdonald’s common phrases.
“Everything has to improve. I have to be a better player, a better leader, I have to do everything better. I’m never going to look at it and say I’m a finished product. I’m still improving at 33, about to turn 34. And I feel like I’ve never been better, so I have to keep working, keep trying and see where I end up,” he concluded.
2024-04-16 16:00:00
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