The NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year returns to Seattle.
The Seahawks and Pro Bowl quarterback Geno Smith have agreed to terms on a three-year, $105 million contract, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and Adam Schefter on Monday.
The deal includes $52 million in the first year, sources said.
Both sides had expressed optimism that a deal would be completed. By reaching an agreement on Monday, they beat Tuesday’s deadline for teams to apply the franchise tag, which would have carried a $32.416 million price tag for quarterbacks in 2023.
Smith, 32, was one of the biggest surprises of the 2022 NFL season, earning a Pro Bowl nod and the league’s Comeback Player of the Year award after spending most of the past seven seasons as a backup.
He won the Seahawks’ starting job after Russell Wilson’s trade to the Denver Broncos — beating out widely-presumed favorite Drew Lock — and delivered one of the most productive seasons in franchise history. Playing on a one-year, $3.5 million deal, Smith led the league in completion percentage (69.8%), finished sixth in Total QBR (60.8) and finished fourth in touchdown passes (30) to lead Seahawks to an unexpected playoff spot as the NFC’s seventh seed.
That’s a big jump from the 58.8% completion rate and 43.6 QBR he posted over 46 games prior to this past season.
Smith started all 17 regular-season games as well as Seattle’s wild-card loss to the San Francisco 49ers, did not miss a single snap and set Seahawks single-season records for completion rate, completions (399) and passing yards (4,282), breaking marks , which Wilson set in 16-game seasons.
Turnovers became a problem for Smith down the stretch. He threw seven of his 11 interceptions over the final seven games of the regular season and at one point admitted he was trying to do too much.
After the playoff loss, an emotional Smith said he would finish his career in Seattle, adding that he wanted to “pay back” the organization for embracing him at a time when he “probably could have been out of the league.”
Smith had spent the previous three seasons as Wilson’s backup in Seattle. The Seahawks re-signed him in April, three months after he was arrested on suspicion of DUI. Smith has not yet been charged in that case as prosecutors await blood test results.
A second-round draft pick of the New York Jets out of West Virginia in 2013, Smith struggled with turnovers in his first two seasons, then lost his starting job in the summer of 2015 after he was punched by a teammate in an infamous locker room altercation, landing on injured reserve with a broken jaw. He spent the 2017 season with the New York Giants after his rookie contract expired, then spent the 2018 season with the Chargers before signing with Seattle in 2019.
When Smith threw two touchdown passes to beat Wilson and the Broncos in Week 1, it marked the NFL’s longest stretch between opening day starts since 1971. He became the first quarterback since Rich Gannon in 1999 to be selected to his first Pro Bowl this year. 10 or later in his career.
Smith has thrown for 11,199 yards and 64 touchdowns with 48 interceptions in his career.