Free agent Geno eyeing offseason reunion with Seahawks appeared first on NBC Sports activities Bayarea
There’s a good likelihood that Geno Smith might be again at quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks subsequent season.
After the San Francisco 49ers’ 41-23 victory over the Seahawks in Saturday’s wild-card spherical at Levi’s Stadium, Smith — an impending free agent — expressed his want to return to Seattle in 2023.
“I need to end my profession in Seattle. I need to be right here,” Smith mentioned. “Town, town, the crew, the coach [Pete] Carroll, the group — all of them embraced me. You understand, I used to be a man who in all probability might have gotten out of the league. They hugged me… at a time when there weren’t many individuals round, and meaning so much to me.
“I’ve a whole lot of loyalty in me. And I need to reward these guys for doing that.”
Requested if Smith would return to the Seahawks subsequent season, coach Pete Carroll mentioned, “I hope so.”
Smith, who was the New York Jets’ beginning quarterback for 2 seasons to start out his profession in 2013 and ’14, began simply 5 video games over the subsequent six seasons. As soon as the Seahawks traded Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos in March, Smith entered the 2022 NFL season in a battle with Drew Lock to safe the beginning job, a task he earned and by no means acknowledged .
Smith had been the Seahawks’ backup quarterback behind Wilson the previous two seasons.
“It is an awesome story,” Carroll mentioned. “It is an awesome story for lots of gamers in different sports activities. Wherever you need to go, when you grasp in there and imagine in your self and do not go away the messages out. of you affect who you might be and what you might be, you will see that your finest. And I believe Geno has discovered his finest and is able to come again and go once more. I assumed he had an extremely nice season for us.”
“It’s totally thrilling once you see an individual go from a backup quarterback to stepping in and being a starter after which make leaps and bounds in a single yr,” extensive receiver DK Metcalf mentioned. “I might inform he was centered for the reason that offseason. We talked day by day. He would textual content me each evening, simply checking up on me. So I can say he is prepared, you understand, to guide this crew and are available again subsequent yr.”
The Seahawks had been one of many groups rumored to be a suitor for veteran quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo final offseason when San Francisco was looking for a commerce accomplice. Nonetheless, the 49ers had been reportedly apprehensive about buying and selling Garoppolo to a division rival or slicing him and watching the Seahawks clear waivers and restructured his contract to be the backup behind Trey Lance.
Smith gained the Seahawks’ beginning job and improbably led a crew that was anticipated to occupy the NFC West cellar into the playoff bracket.
With Smith and the Seahawks each pursuing a reunion subsequent season, the probabilities of Garoppolo making it to Seattle are slim to none. However there must be loads of new touchdown spots for the 31-year-old veteran heading into an offseason anticipated to incorporate a wild quarterback carousel.