The Seattle Seahawks have a lot of decisions to make for the 2025 season. Sitting at $5 million over the cap, the Hawks need to make serious changes to their roster. One quarterback accounts for over 14 percent of the cap while the other eats up four-tenths of one percent of their payroll. Seattle might want to see if the cheaper option can play.
Geno Smith is just one of dozens of NFL players who can earn major incentives in the final week of the 2024 season. Smith could pocket a cool $6 million extra this Sunday by hitting all three of his contract riders. All three are reasonable gets, too. As long as he has a good game - not a great game, mind you, just a good game - he can reach all three marks pretty easily.
First, he must throw for 186 yards to beat his mark of 4,282 in 2022. Second, he needs to finish with a completion percentage of 69.8 percent. He's currently at 70.2, so if he completed, say, 13 of 22 passes Sunday, he'd end up with a completion rate of 69.81. His actual percentage in 2022 was 69.76, so that's definitely another target he can hit. The third is for Seattle to win the game. As the Rams are resting at least seven starters, that win seems even more likely.
The Seattle Seahawks need to think team first in Week 18
I'd love to see Smith earn those bonuses. But if he doesn't take a single snap on Sunday, he already has $2 million locked up for completion percentage. Even if he plays the first series and misses on three passes, he'd still beat his 2022 mark and earn his bonus. As long as the Hawks win Sunday, he'd also earn the bonus for 10 wins. So even by sitting this one out, or playing their first series or two, he'll earn a cool $2 mil and double that with a Seattle win.
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald addressed the incentives this week, saying, "I guess it’s one of those things where you’re probably going to look — there is financial things involved with it, which you want your guys to hit those numbers.” Sounds like he's going to give Smith the chance to hit those bonuses, right?
However, Macdonald added this statement: “If it’s within your power, you’re going to try to make that come to life — create as many opportunities for those guys as possible all within the lens of what’s best for the team and trying to win." Read that again, and focus on this part; "what's best for the team."
So, is it best for the Seahawks to make sure Geno Smith earns as much money as he can? In one sense, it is. Potential free agents looking for a new team absolutely look at how the current players are treated. If the Hawks go out of their way to get Smith his $6 million, they'll see that - and you can be sure if they don't notice, John Schneider will bring that up in the first discussion.
But is it also in the best interest of the team to start your 34-year-old quarterback when you know exactly what he brings to the field? Especially when he's scheduled to account for one-seventh of your cap hit in 2025? By the way, if Geno hits all three bonuses, his cap hit would increase from $38.5 to $44.8 million. That's per the same article by Bob Condotta linked above. That would place him eighth among all quarterbacks in the league.
Meanwhile, the Hawks have Sam Howell on the roster. Yeah, he's the guy whose 2025 cap hit is $1.1 million, or .4 percent of the total. Yes, he was terrible against the Packers when he got his chance to step up. There's no way to sugarcoat that. But if the Seahawks and the 12s were going to write off a guy for one bad game, why did Geno Smith get another start after that first Rams game? Or the first Niners game, for that matter?
That's one reason I strongly believe that Seattle needs to see what Sam Howell can do. They should have prepped for the Week 18 finale by running Howell with the first unit, but they didn't. That made no sense to me.
Does Smith need a full week of reps with the guys he's started with all year, really? It's not like practice has kept the team from all the bad interceptions anyway. Yes, the Hawks need to review all their options if Howell isn't ready to step up. If it was my team, I'd take another long look at him first. I already know what Geno can do.
Yes, I believe that professional sports teams should help their players attain their contract incentives. I also believe that those same teams need to gather the most information they can to make the best decisions for their progress. When those two goals conflict, the team's best interests have to come first.