4 potential trade destinations for Geno Smith this offseason

The Seattle Seahawks guaranteed Geno Smith's base salary of $12.7 million for 2024 last week and Smith could get another $9.6 million on March 17 as a roster bonus. Both of these things could happen and Seattle could still trade Smith if the team wanted. Quality veteran starting quarterbacks making a bit over $22 million before bonuses are rare in the NFL. Some teams would want Smith.

But why would Seattle want to trade him? Doing so at this point, or even after March 17, would not save the team a ton of money. $13,800,000, in fact. Sure, that's good enough to bring in a quality defensive player but not good enough to re-sign Leonard Williams, for instance. What Smith could bring back is decent draft capital.

I don't mean a first-round choice, either. Teams are unlikely to give up that much for a quarterback about to be in his mid-30s. Smith has been pretty good in the last two years but not that good. The ultimate reason for moving Smith would be to make room for a rookie quarterback who head coach Mike Macdonald might want to start his Seattle coaching career. If Seattle does move Smith, here are four potential landing spots.

Potential Seattle Seahawks and Geno Smith trade destination No. 1 - Pittsburgh Steelers

Projected 2024 cap space (top 51): $-12,260,901
Projected 2025 cap space: $129,116,848
Highest 2024 NFL draft picks: First round, pick 20; second round, pick 51; third round, pick 84

The Steelers stay good enough to make the playoffs most years and have a winning record every season since the earth began to cool. Recently, the Steelers have had players such as Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph behind center and have been able to be efficient enough to stay scary. Geno Smith would make them a better team capable of possibly winning a couple of games once in the postseason.

There were rumors that possibly long-term head coach Mike Tomlin could be let go after this season. That would seem a dumb move considering all of Tomlin's success, but that may also mean there is a priority on winning at a higher level in 2024. Bringing in a veteran quarterback like Smith would make sense. And yes, Pittsburgh would need to create cap space to make the trade, but they could restructure several contracts to make room.

Seattle should be able to recoup at least Pittsburgh's second-round pick plus another later-round choice. At least then Seattle would get the second-round selection back they lost in the trade that brought Leonard Williams to Seattle in the middle of the 2023 season. Getting more draft picks and depth is only going to help Mike Macdonald move forward.