Contract comps for Seahawks’ Geno Smith the quarter mark of 2022

The Seattle Seahawks wrapped up the primary 4 weeks of the 2022 NFL Season with a 2-2 report and in a 4 crew logjam at .500 within the NFC West. Sadly, when making use of the relevant tiebreakers to that four-way tie, the Hawks wind up with the quick stick and in final place by advantage of division and convention successful percentages. Nevertheless, the truth that they’re even within the dialogue at this level is probably going a shock to many who had written them off.

With reference to shocks, the 2 largest shocks when it comes to the efficiency of the crew thus far are seemingly how shockingly dangerous the protection has been, whereas on the flip facet of the ball how shockingly not dangerous quarterback Geno Smith has been. His play via the primary 4 weeks of the season speaks for itself, and followers at the moment are seeing for themselves what the teaching workers and teammates witnessed via the offseason program and coaching camp. As well as, as Subject Gulls famous again in August, what Smith is exhibiting on the sector is what he confirmed to the teaching workers in crew conferences and practices and why Drew Lock was by no means actually in severe competition to start out.

There was no scarcity of reward for what Smith has accomplished on the sector thus far this season, along with Smith being named Offensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Lions.

This stage of on-field efficiency has, in fact, introduced the dialogue relating to Geno and his potential future with the Hawks to the purpose of early discussions of what sort of contract he may probably demand, or whether or not the franchise tag could be warranted. So, as an alternative of randomly guessing, right here’s a have a look at a handful of quarterbacks who carried out equally to Smith in roughly roughly the identical variety of video games over a season or two earlier than reaching free company, together with the scale of the contract they signed.

4 quarterbacks is definitely a small pattern measurement, however the easy truth of the matter is that there will not be plenty of quarterbacks allowed to succeed in free company. Jameis Winston would match the standards, however even he acquired $15.2M absolutely assured coming off a torn ACL with no ensures he could be obtainable for the 2022 season. In the meantime, Nick Foles ($22M per yr), Teddy Bridgewater ($21M per yr) and Brock Osweiler ($18M per yr) all modified groups when their prior employer determined they weren’t price what the market was prepared to pay them. Foles, in fact, will get an asterisk subsequent to his title, as along with the begins listed within the desk, he additionally had 5 extra postseason begins in that stretch, together with beginning for the Philadelphia Eagles of their Tremendous Bowl win over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

The San Francisco 49ers, then again, opted to make Jimmy Garoppolo the best paid quarterback within the league at $27.5M at a time when the wage cap was simply $167M, which on a proportion of cap foundation interprets to someplace within the $37M vary on a projected $225M wage cap for 2023. That quantity is probably going a bit bit gentle when accounting for cap slippage and the fast acceleration of wage will increase for top finish gamers, quarterbacks particularly. Nevertheless, no matter whether or not a excessive quantity in 2023 would extra precisely characterize the current day worth of Garoppolo’s 2017 contract, the important thing level to remove is that the quantity is increased than each the projected franchise tag for quarterbacks for 2023 of $31.497M per OverTheCap.com and the typical cap hit of Russell Wilson’s contract previous to his commerce to the Denver Broncos.

Briefly, no matter precisely how a lot Smith could signal for within the spring with the Seahawks, or with one other quarterback needy crew, on the finish of the day the choices for Seattle could quickly turn into to pay Smith virtually as a lot as they have been paying Wilson or begin the seek for a quarterback throughout within the offseason.

Whichever of these choices the crew decides, this dialogue will definitely proceed for so long as Smith continues to carry out at a excessive stage. And, ought to he proceed to carry out at this stage all through 2022, then the comparables for any potential contract will evolve to incorporate the likes of Kirk Cousins and Case Keenum.