Seahawks losing Geno Smith to Bucs is a real possibility

The Seahawks got a great season out of quarterback Geno Smith in 2023. But Seattle lost their quarterback coach, Dave Canales, to the Buccaneers and Smith could follow. Smith, of course, is a free agent who Seattle would probably like to retain, but only if the price is right. But Smith might see what the Buccaneers have to offer and would clearly trust his offensive coordinator.

That’s because Canales left the Seahawks to become the new OC in Tampa. Canales has been a good coach with Seattle since Pete Carroll took over in 2010 (Canales also coached with Carroll at USC before both came to Seattle) and has worked his way up the offensive coaching food chain and now has a chance to show what he can do when completely in charge of an offense. My guess is that Canales will do an excellent job.

But one way Canales could improve his situation is by getting Geno Smith to come to play for the Buccaneers. Smith would leave Seattle but would be going to a team where he already has a good relationship with one of the people in charge and would know his job is not in doubt. Canales, meanwhile, would know how to get the best out of his quarterback and therefore the offense overall.

Could the Seahawks lose Geno Smith to the Buccaneers?

There is possibly one huge draw for Smith to go to the Buccaneers and one massive reason not to. First, the draw would be that Smith a Florida native and is from the Miami area. He’d basically just be going back home.

The reason Smith might not end up in Tampa is that the Buccaneers don’t have any cap room and might not be able to pay Smith what he might want to get paid. Tom Brady appears to have officially retired (though he did that before and came back) so his cap hit for Tampa is $35,104,000. That is debilitating to a team. Assuming Brady does the Buccaneers a solid and works out a deal for 1-year for a bit over $1 million, his cap hit in 2023 would fall to $11.9 million.

This still means the Buccaneers would be under the cap by around $31 million. Doesn’t leave much room to sign a good quarterback, it seems. Still, cap space is malleable and Tampa Bay could probably work out some way to bring Smith to the Buccaneers if the team and player wanted.

Geno Smith’s final 2023 destination will probably be known by mid-March when free agency begins. He will either stay with the Seahawks or go elsewhere and that team could easily be the Buccaneers. Dave Canales would probably particularly like that last part.