Geno Smith and the Raiders reached a contract extension on Thursday and the details of the two-year extension appear to be reasonable for both sides.
If anything, the Raiders locked up their starting quarterback at a cost that’s a lot lower than what he was reportedly looking for from the Seahawks.
ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio said Smith’s contract looks very similar to Sam Darnold’s deal in Seattle and well below the $40 million per year he was reportedly looking for a month ago.
“Remember when the Seahawks pivoted from Geno Smith to Sam Darnold because Smith wanted too much and Darnold was signed for significantly cheaper? Less than a month later, that swap has a much different feel,” Florio reported on Thursday.
“Although the initial reports of the value of a new contract are almost always flawed because (1) the agents overstate the terms to the insiders and (2) the insiders know that any regard for, you know, the truth will keep them from being first or close to it, the initial word on the Smith report points to a base two-year extension worth $75 million,” Florio continued. “Given that he was due to make $31 million in the final year of his existing contract, it becomes a three-year, $106 million deal.”
A three-year, $106 million deal is a reasonable cost for a quarterback with Smith’s resume, and it should be especially encouraging to those who thought the deal was team-friendly when the original report said the extension was two years, $85 million.
We know now that the extra $10 million is tied up in incentives that have not yet been specified by anyone that has reported on the deal to this point.
“The Seahawks signed Darnold to a three-year, $100.5 million deal. Smith reportedly has a $10.5 million upside. Darnold has a $15 million upside. That puts Smith at $116.5 million in maximum earnings, and Darnold at $115.5 million,” Florio added. “That said, Darnold’s deal is structured to let the Seahawks escape it after one year and $37.5 million. The structure of Smith’s deal has yet to be reported.”
It will be interesting to see what Smith’s deal looks like if the Raiders decide to move away from him after two years. A two-year commitment to Smith seems reasonable for both sides, but the Raiders are expected to draft a quarterback in April and in a perfect world, the team would love to have some flexibility with Geno’s contract. No doubt, that has been the issue slowing down the extension for the last couple of weeks.
We should now soon if the deal has flexibility for the team after year one (as the Seahawks did with Sam Darnold) or year two.
Given the fact that the Raiders gave up a third-round pick for Smith and the veteran quarterback has a close relationship with Pete Carroll, there’s a chance the Raiders were willing to be a little more invested in Smith than the Seahawks were in Darnold.
x: @raidersbeat