INDIANAPOLIS — So, when the Seahawks begin the 2024 season will Geno Smith be under center?
"Yeah, I mean, I would think yes — he's the starter," Seahawks president of football operations John Schneider said when asked whether he considers Smith the team's starter Tuesday during his scheduled media appearance at the NFL scouting combine.
But then Schneider added "until he's not."
Therein lies the rub.
While the Seahawks seem to be operating as if Smith will be the guy again in 2024, they also seem to still be leaving the door open at least just a little bit for anything to happen — especially with Schneider saying the team also hopes to bring back free-agent quarterback Drew Lock and will consider selecting a quarterback in April's draft.
Maybe leaving every option on the table is what should be expected of a team that figures to still "Always Compete," even if Pete Carroll is no longer around.
Schneider tried to shut down some quarterback intrigue when he talked to a few Seahawks beat reporters in a separate session off the podium.
Asked about the team's move last week to restructure Smith's deal by turning a $9.6 million roster bonus he was due if he was still with the team on March 18 into a signing bonus that Smith gets immediately, Schneider said there was no meaning behind the timing.
"Just to create cap room," Schneider said of the move, which allowed Seattle to spread out the cap hit of the roster bonus over the next two seasons, saving $4.8 million this year.
Some wondered if the team was making a statement by enacting the move before Smith would have been guaranteed the money.
Paying Smith the bonus now, some argued, only further solidified that the Seahawks intend for him to be the starter in 2024. Why commit to the money before they have to if they are not sure he's going to be the starter?
Conversely, others thought that by Seattle paying Smith the bonus now it would be easier for another team to trade for him, knowing it would take on a lesser cap hit in 2024, not to mention not having to pay out the cash.
But Schneider insisted the move was made when it was simply because it was a move the team knew it was going to make at some point. So why not make it now?
"Honestly, other people made a bigger deal out of that than we did in the building," Schneider said, adding that he knew that on the outside "it was like, 'Is he going to be here, is he not going to be here?'" but that in the building "it was not" a question.
"He was going to be here," Schneider said. "It was a matter of like, 'When are we going to tell him we are doing this with his roster bonus?'"
The move cut Smith's salary cap number for 2024 from $31.2 million to $26.4 million but pushed up his 2025 cap number to $38.5 million.
If Smith, who turns 34 in October, were traded, the new team would take on paying his $12.7 million base salary, which became fully guaranteed earlier this month. When the date passed that his salary became guaranteed, ESPN reported that the Seahawks could still consider trading him, stating that Seattle guaranteed the salary because it felt it represented a good value for a quarterback for themselves "or any other team that decides to reach out to see if it can acquire Smith via trade."
There have been no reports since then of teams having reached out.
So, maybe Seattle restructured his deal last week to make it clearer to any teams that might be interested exactly what they'd have to take on, and that doing so last week allowed for teams to approach the Seahawks here this week at the combine with that knowledge.
That, in essence, Seattle was willing to pay $9.6 million to buy some extra flexibility.
And what allows observers to keep stoking the uncertainty is the Seahawks' recent trade history.
It was at this event two years ago that Carroll said the Seahawks "have no intention" of trading Russell Wilson.
A week later, Wilson was traded.
But Seattle is in an unusual situation this year, breaking in a new coaching staff for the first time since 2010.
Schneider mentioned that Seattle hasn't yet done as much work on its roster as it would have by this point in past years and will begin sitting down with pending free agents next week to get that process jump-started.
That makes it a little harder to speak with certainty about some aspects of the roster, including the quarterback situation and the future of Lock, specifically.
Schneider said he planned to meet here with Lock's agents; Lock's listed representation is CAA Sports, the same agency that represents Kalen DeBoer and dozens of other players and coaches.
"Honestly, yeah," Schneider said when asked if they'd like Lock back. "Going to meet with his agent down here. He's one of the guys in that group [of free agents the team hopes to re-sign]."
Seattle also has the 16th pick in the first round and then two more in the third round at Nos. 78 and 81. The Seahawks could get a quarterback with one of those picks, or use some of those to move around to get a quarterback they like at a different spot.
Schneider didn't rule out drafting a QB in an answer that noted that Seattle has drafted only two in his 14-year tenure, Wilson in the third round in 2012 and Alex McGough in the seventh in 2018.
"It's a good group," he said of the rookie QBs. "I've told you guys in the past and having grown up in the Packer organization for [longtime Green Bay GM] Ron Wolf — 14 drafts and only drafting two quarterbacks is not something that we're necessarily proud of. It's just happened that way. Every year it's a goal to acquire a quarterback, whether that's draft, free agency, whatever it looks like. But, yeah, this year's draft class is a cool group. A lot of variances in there."
Seattle could keep Smith for now, try to re-sign Lock and draft a QB in April, and then wait and see if any trade options develop later — such as from a team whose starter gets hurt in training camp. Trading Smith now would come with the complication of a $27 million dead cap hit. But that would drop to $13.5 million after June 1 (all of which also assumes there's a team willing to give Seattle what it would want for Smith).
All we know for sure at the moment is that Smith is under contract.
While Smith's cap hit for 2024 was made more reasonable with last week's restructure, the increase for 2025 seems to make it an even greater certainty that Seattle would move on from him by then — or if they bring him back, doing so on a different deal.
So yes, as Schneider says, Geno Smith is the starter until he's not, with the question of when the "he's not" date still appearing to have no set answer.
