RENTON, Wash. -- The Seattle Seahawks are looking for a new offensive coordinator after firing Ryan Grubb on Monday, but if coach Mike Macdonald has his way, they won't have to look for a new quarterback as well.
Macdonald gave his latest endorsement of Geno Smith on Tuesday, and in so doing seemed to acknowledge the possibility of a contract impasse resulting in the two sides parting ways.
Smith and the Seahawks are expected to have negotiations towards a new deal this offseason, with the quarterback now eligible for one with his current contract running through 2025. Macdonald was asked how involved he'll be in that process.
"I want Geno to be here," Macdonald said in his end-of-season news conference. "I think he's a heck of a player ... I feel like Geno's the best for the team right now. I'll be involved with it. Ultimately it's not my decision. It's a Seahawks decision, but Geno knows how we feel about him and we love him as our starting quarterback, for sure."
In another up-and-down season, Smith, 34, broke his own franchise records for passing yards with 4,320 (fourth in NFL) and completion rate at 70.4% (fifth), carrying an offense with an overmatched line and no consistent run game. He also led four game-winning drives, the latest coming in the Seahawks' victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, which closed out a 10-7 season that left them one spot out of the playoffs. The game-winner was Smith's fourth touchdown passes, a new career-high.
But Smith threw 15 interceptions (third-most) in 17 games compared to 21 touchdown passes, and his Total QBR of 53.8 (21st) was his lowest in three seasons as Seattle's full-time starter.
"We did a lot of really good things, and one of those things was Geno's productivity, and this is something that I'm looking forward to building off of," Macdonald said. "I thought he had a really good year. We had a conversation yesterday, but the feeling you get was he's proud of the things we did but felt like we could have done a better job as an offense and as a team, and could have put ourselves in position to go into the tournament to go make a run at this thing."
As he has before, Macdonald shifted blame away from Smith on some of his interceptions, which included a league-high four in the red zone.
"It's everybody," Macdonald said. "It's putting ourselves in those situations. It's clarity on the reads. It's Geno making the correct decisions in real time. It's guys being in the right spots. It's overall how much are we putting on his plate on a play-in, play-out basis. I think all that stuff goes into it, and we're going to look to build on those situations, because some of them came in the red zone, and those are critical interceptions that we're going to want back."
General manager John Schneider, who holds final say over personnel decisions, was noncommittal early last offseason on Smith remaining Seattle's starter. Over the summer, Smith's agent reached out to Schneider in the hopes of re-negotiating the quarterback's contract, which was a nonstarter given the team's policy of not re-doing deals with more than a year left.
As it stands now, Smith is slated to make $31 million next season. That includes a $16 million bonus he'll earn provided he's on the Seahawks' roster as of March 16. That roster bonus was initially worth $10 million, but Smith hit $6 million worth of escalators based on his and the team's performance in 2024.
The $25 million average of the deal he signed in March of 2023 ranks 19th among quarterbacks.
"Those are things that I'll talk to the people I need to talk to about," he said when asked Sunday what will be important to him in negotiations. "I appreciate the question, but I like to keep a lot of things internal, in-house, with respects to everybody involved. I think it's the best way to do it."
At one point during his postgame news conference, Smith seemed to hint at some uncertainty in his future, saying the Seahawks are headed in the right direction "with or without me." He later downplayed any meaning behind the comment.
The Seahawks hold the 18th overall pick and have backup quarterback Sam Howell - who struggled this summer and in his lone relief appearance of Smith this season -- under contract for one more year.
Smith was a strong supporter of Grubb, who was fired after one season. Macdonald didn't shed any new insight on the reason behind the move, reiterating what he said on his radio show Monday about how their visions for the offense didn't align.
Macdonald said the Seahawks have put in "a couple" interview requests with offensive coordinator candidates that he did not name, and that no in-house options are currently under consideration. He said NFL play-calling experience isn't necessarily a prerequisite, and that more changes could come to the offensive staff depending on what the new OC wants to do.
"We want our new coordinator to feel like they have a lot of influence in their staff, so we might have some movement when that happens and we might not," he said. "We'll kind of go through the process and figure it out as we go."
