Geno Smith entered the NFL as a second-round pick in the 2013 Draft. After being named the starter for the New York Jets, inconsistencies plagued his play, leading to him being benched near the end of his second season. It would take nearly a decade before he earned a starting role again, this time with the Seattle Seahawks, who were moving on from Russell Wilson.
Smith spent three years as Seattle’s starter, becoming one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the league and leading the team to a playoff appearance. However, in one of the offseason’s most surprising moves, he was traded to the Las Vegas Raiders to reunite with his former coach, Pete Carroll. The Seahawks replaced him by signing Sam Darnold in free agency. Here’s a look at what prompted Seattle’s shocking change at quarterback.
Why Did Seattle Seahawks Part Ways With Geno Smith?
Smith entered the NFL after four years at West Virginia, starting in his final three seasons. His consistent performance earned him All-Big East Conference honors in both 2010 and 2011.
Beginning his professional career in New York, Smith experienced an up-and-down first two seasons, which led head coach Todd Bowles to bench him in favor of Ryan Fitzpatrick. He reclaimed the starting role in 2016, but a torn ACL in the first game immediately ended his season.
From there, Smith moved between several teams before landing in Seattle. He spent his first three seasons behind Russell Wilson in a backup role before earning the starting position in 2022, beating out Drew Lock.
In 2022, Smith threw for 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns, leading the Seahawks to a playoff berth and earning the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award. Despite maintaining similar numbers over the next two seasons, Seattle failed to replicate that level of success.
In 2024, the franchise parted ways with Carroll, hiring Mike Macdonald as the new head coach. That change ultimately marked the beginning of the end for Smith’s tenure in Seattle.
With one year left on his deal, the two-time Pro Bowler wanted a contract extension that paid him like one of the top quarterbacks in the league. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like Seattle wanted to play ball.
General manager John Schneider clarified that the two sides had no real back and forth. “It wasn’t a very long negotiation. So, as a staff, we had to be prepared to pivot.”
Despite making a firm offer, in Schneider’s words, Smith’s camp did not make a counteroffer, making it clear to the Seahawks where things were headed. As a result, they chose to ship him to the Raiders, who had shown immediate interest.
Smith’s decision to find a new team was simple: “I finally got my team.” He continued by revealing that he felt uncomfortable during his time with the Seahawks.
“I always felt like I was trying to replace Russell, and you can never replace all the great things that he did. So I never felt like Seattle was my team. Also, I didn’t feel like I fit the aesthetic of the Seattle organization. The Raiders just fit me.”
Seattle Seahawks Chose Sam Darnold as Their Next Quarterback
The free agency class, especially for quarterbacks, didn’t offer Seattle much variety. However, when it became clear that the Seahawks would need a new signal-caller, Macdonald had just one guy in mind.
“Once we decided to make the move with Geno, understanding who was out there, Sam became the No. 1 focus pretty quickly.” A first-round pick in 2018, along with the Jets, Darnold’s career never got off the ground running.
Despite holding the starting job for three seasons, Darnold did not show enough for New York to keep him around. Instead, he began his next phase with the Carolina Panthers, where he was a starter for a year and a half.
However, failing to impress again, he wound up with the San Francisco 49ers, where he spent the season backing up Brock Purdy. Describing it as a valuable learning experience, the results were immediate.
Signing with the Minnesota Vikings in 2024, Darnold was elevated to the starting role after J.J. McCarthy suffered a season-ending injury in the preseason. He delivered a standout campaign, establishing himself as one of the league’s top quarterbacks that year
Darnold threw for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns, leading the Vikings to 14 wins. One of those games came against the Seahawks in Week 16, where head coach Mike Macdonald gained a newfound respect for the quarterback running the opposing offense.
“We felt him out there. When you play quarterbacks, you want to feel them in the game. You definitely feel Sam’s presence and poise, competitiveness, and accuracy. The downfield threat, that’s definitely a part of it. And then being able to run the show, too, operationally, Sam can do it with the best of them.”
Macdonald wasn’t the only one on Seattle’s staff clamoring for Darnold. Their offensive coordinator, Klint Kubiak, who worked with Darnold as the team’s passing game coordinator during his time in San Francisco, also had some glowing words for his new quarterback.
“Sam is extremely talented. Great thrower of the football. His mobility sticks out, his toughness, his maturity. He’s an A-plus teammate. Elevates those around him, and the guys he plays with respect him because when your best players are your hardest workers, that’s what you really strive for, that’s what you want as a coach. Sam has that in spades.”
Seahawks Players’ Fantasy Outlooks for Week 9
Here’s what PFSN’s Kyle Soppe wrote on the Seahawks’ notable players’ fantasy outlooks for the Week 9 matchup against the Washington Commanders:
Sam Darnold
The volume isn’t quite the same, but you could have made a lot of money forecasting Sam Darnold to average more fantasy points per pass this season than last.
Fantasy Points Per Pass Attempt
- 2024 with Vikings: 0.53
- 2025 with Seahawks: 0.57
After a strong start to the season, Washington has struggled to create pressure without the courtesy of the blitz, and that means one of two things is likely to happen on Sunday night: (1) Darnold is comfortable in a clean pocket or (2) the Commanders are left vulnerable on the back-end as a result of needing to crowd the line of scrimmage.
Realistically, I’m OK with either result, but which adventure you believe is most likely for them to choose impacts where Darnold ranks among the pocket-locked QBs this week.
Sam Darnold Splits
- 2024, when blitzed: 66.4% complete and 133.6 rating
- 2025, when blitzed: 59.3% complete and 92.9 rating
- 2024, when not pressured: 73.7% complete, 8.2 yards per attempt
- 2025, when not pressured: 78.7% complete, 10.3 yards per attempt
With Seattle coming off the bye, I’m more bullish on Darnold in this spot than the industry norm and see him as a threat to the top 12 at the position, even without an expectation of any points on the ground.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba
We spent time this summer worrying about what a move out of the slot would mean for Jaxon Smith-Njigba, with Seattle moving on from the receivers they had banked on for years, thus elevating JSN into a truly featured role.
We nailed the “out of the slot” portion of that. The “worrying” part? That was silly.
Smith-Njigba’s slot usage has fallen from 77.4% of routes to 19.4%. The loss of those “easier” targets hasn’t mattered in the least.
His average depth of target is up 41.3% from a season ago, and it hasn’t stopped him from earning 10 looks per game. He had a 40-yard catch in each of his first six games this season and has scored in three straight, following his TD in Week 7 against the Texans with an easy dunk on the uprights all in one motion from his route, an impressive athletic feat for a six-footer wearing pads.
I think a 38.3% target share and a 46.3% receiving-yardage share (he has 819 receiving yards and is the only Seahawk at even 300) are probably high-water marks. I have a hard time not penciling in some regression, but even a bit of backtracking keeps him EASILY inside the top 10 the rest of the way.
He’s a matchup-proof alpha. The numbers are expected to continue piling up this week and moving forward, giving you great value based on his preseason ADP.
Whispers … He faces the Panthers in Week 17, giving him every chance to not only be the reason your team makes the playoffs, but the reason you win the whole thing.
Kenneth Walker III
This is an old man yelling at clouds situation, and guess what? The clouds? They never listen. Kenneth Walker has his weekly moments, but NFL coaches love consistency, and if anything, Walker has been a consistent detriment.
He’s pacing to finish as a 20th percentile running back in terms of rush gain rate, something he’s done every season of his career up to this point. There’s a reason that the Barry Sanderses of the world are considered special: that home run-seeking style is hard to pull off.
Walker has been held under four yards per carry in three straight, held out of the end zone in four straight, and has just five catches in six games since catching three balls in Week 1.
We can beg for more work, but he hasn’t really earned it. Giving him more work would encourage a style that has been a net negative for going on five seasons. There is raw talent here, no doubt, and maybe we get a taste of that this weekend. Or maybe we don’t.
The fact that we can’t count on him carries over to the coaching staff, and that’s why I have a hard time penciling him in for over 15 touches in any single game. The touch count is close enough to that of Zach Charbonnet, so I’ll continue to rank him a touch higher because I have to account for the potential of a splash play, but I don’t feel great about playing him as an RB2 this week. Or, to be honest, any week.