Top 5 2023 free agents Seahawks should sign for future success

Number 1: Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith

It’s time now to extend Geno Smith for many reasons. He is playing elite football currently. He wasn’t bad in 2021 when he started three games but the team didn’t seem to fully trust him. Now the Seahawks do and Smith has flourished in Waldron’s offense. Every week that goes by is another week that builds belief in Smith. He is crisp and consistent with throws and has a better deep ball than most thought he had.

Smith is also great in the locker room. His teammates believe in him and want to play with him. This may not have been the case with Russell Wilson who talked about being team-first a lot but may not have had the same love from his teammates that Smith gets. And that’s important. A team that wants to play hard for each other wins more games than one that doesn’t care most of the time.

But let’s be real. Geno Smith has been a very good quarterback for the Seahawks and none of his excellence seems like a fluke. He is also only 32 years old and hasn’t taken a lot of punishment over the years as he has mostly been a backup in the league. He is basically a young 32 and definitely worth keeping around for a couple of more years to be a good starter and maybe even help groom his replacement.

Someone is going to pay Geno Smith this offseason and pay him a lot of money. He probably isn’t going to earn $35 million but he deserves a huge pay increase and that should come from the Seahawks. Plus, Geno probably would rather play for Seattle than any other team as Pete Carroll has given him the chance to finally start. And Smith has made Carroll’s faith in him pay off.