How Pete Carroll, Raiders were able to land Geno Smith in trade with Seahawks

PALM BEACH, Fla. – For the first time in five years, Pete Carroll wasn’t Geno Smith’s coach when the 2024 football season rolled around.

But what turned out to be a momentary change in the official designation of their relationship, didn’t change the nature of it.

In his first comments since the Las Vegas Raiders acquired Smith in a trade with the Seahawks, Carroll said he and Smith remained in contact throughout last season.

“Geno and I have a tremendously long, in-depth relationship,’’ Carroll, who was named as coach of the Raiders on Jan. 25, said Monday morning during his official session with reporters at the NFL annual meeting. “I talked to him all throughout this year. You’d be surprised how much we would just communicate, stay in touch. And really, it’s about me supporting him and hoping for the best.’’

Not that there was anything nefarious in that – Carroll held a role of adviser with the Seahawks in 2024, which was the final season on his contract.

Keeping that relationship alive may have helped sow the seeds for the trade of Smith to the Raiders on March 7.

Carroll inherited a Raiders team that had an uncertain quarterback situation, getting nine starts in 2024 from former WSU standout Gardner Minshew (who went 2-7) and seven from Aidan O’Connell (who went 2-5) during a 4-13 season that resulted in the firing of Antonio Pierce.

It was reported on March 5 that the Raiders were releasing Minshew, who had one year remaining on his contract.

Carroll said the Raiders batted around quarterback possibilities from the moment he got the job with Smith at the forefront.

“He kind of, it was one of the options that I was hoping would be available,’’ Carroll said. “And when we talked right from the beginning there was a number of options of who we could go to at quarterback to kind of start the program up and Geno was prominent in my mind because I know exactly what we were getting.’’

Smith played for the Seahawks for five years under Carroll, the final two as starter in 2022 and 2023 following the trade of Russell Wilson to Denver. Carroll was fired as coach and replaced by Mike Macdonald in 2024.

Carroll indicated that Las Vegas leapt once they knew Smith might be available.

“When it came around time to get to it, it was an automatic that we would take a shot at it,’’ Carroll said. “Fortunately Seattle was willing to risk it and (Raiders first-year general manager) Johnny Spytek made his first big-time deal and we pulled it off in exactly the manner that we wanted to and gave us a great kick-start to what’s going on.’’

Smith became available when talks on a contract extension with the Seahawks broke down quickly.

Seahawks general manager John Schneider said the week after the trade that they made an offer to Smith following initial talks with his agents at the NFL scouting combine, which was Feb. 24 to March 3.

Smith was entering the final season of a three-year deal signed in March, 2023 that was due to pay him $31 million in 2025 and featured a salary cap hit of $44.5 million.

That contract included a $16 million roster bonus due on March 16 that included $6 million in escalators Smith achieved during the 2024 season.

Smith approached the Seahawks about an extension before the 2024 season, something he acknowledged publicly. The Seahawks stuck to their precedent of not negotiating with players who have more than a year remaining on their contracts.

They did acquiesce some in telling Smith they would work to get a deal done before the free agent period rather than waiting until the spring, as the Seahawks have usually done with extensions, which are typically handled after the draft.

Two sources have said the Seahawks’ offer to Smith, said to have been delivered around March 4, would have topped $40 million a year, one categorizing it as a two-year extension that would have been worth up to $90 million, averaging in the $40-45 million range.

The team felt that a significant raise from the $25 million base average of his current deal. Smith saw the likes of Trevor Lawrence ($55 million average) and Tua Tagovailoa ($53.5 million) sign deals last offseason for more than $50 million and some around the league have theorized he wanted to get close to that range.

Schneider said on March 13 that the Seahawks never received a counteroffer.

The Seahawks hoped to receive an answer by the end of the week of March 7, before the NFL free agent negotiating period. They received only silence, with Smith’s side offering no counter proposal.

“We made an offer to Geno, tried to extend him,” Schneider said. “It became apparent that we weren’t going to be able to get a deal done. It wasn’t a very long negotiation.’’

With free agency fast approaching – and the Seahawks knowing they needed to move quickly if it wanted a chance to sign Sam Darnold, which the team viewed as its best of the most realistic possibilities in finding a replacement – they shipped Smith to the Raiders on March 7 for a 2025 third-round pick.

“We had to be prepared to pivot,’’ Schneider said. “We had sat down with the offensive staff, and obviously the personnel guys were on it before, always having a contingency plan. We had some guys we were interested in, made the trade, and were able to get the guy at the top of the list, which doesn’t happen all the time.”

The Raiders explored acquiring Matthew Stafford if he became available. Those hopes ended on Feb. 28 when the Rams and Stafford agreed to a new deal.

That further enhanced the Raiders’ interest in Smith.

Putting two and two together can easily lead to a conclusion that Smith knew at the time of the Seahawks’ offer that the Raiders could be a realistic alternative if talks broke down – and that might have led to him being more inclined to play hardball.

The Seahawks understood that the mutual interest of Smith and the Raiders provided an easy way out of a potentially sticky situation – but only if they moved quickly enough to get a replacement.

During his days coaching the Seahawks, Carroll once referred to Smith, who will turn 35 in October, as “one of my all-time favorite guys,’’ in part for his perseverance and attitude during three years as Wilson’s backup from 2019-21.

Carroll reiterated that stance Monday.

“Getting Geno was a really important part of this,’’ Carroll said. “We’ve had really a rich background and it was really important to me because I know what we can count on. ….

“The guy sat for six years and in that time, one, he didn’t get the wear and the tear, so that’s why he moves so well and runs really well still. But he took to the game in a manner that was really very impressive. He was able to one day after another take it like ‘the very next play I’m playing.’ … And when he finally played look what he’s done – he’s had three winning seasons and he’s a tremendous completion guy, he’s durable, he’s tough. So we were really fortunate to get him.’’

Now it’s on the Raiders to get the extension done that the Seahawks couldn’t.

The Raiders and Smith have yet to reach an agreement on a new deal, which is one reason the team has yet to hold a news conference introducing Smith, who has yet to speak publicly about the trade.

Carroll said the Raiders and Smith remain in talks and seemed to hint that Smith will be with the team when the voluntary offseason program begins on April 7.

“We’re working on it,” Carroll said. “Yeah, we’re working on it. G’s excited to get going, get started. He’ll be here when we get rolling. But we are working on it.”

Carroll said there’s no question he considers Smith as the Raiders’ long-term quarterback.

“Yes, absolutely,’’ he said. “I’m hoping that’s the way it’s going to be. … We’re going to get a number of years from Geno at his very best.’’