The Seattle Seahawks will have a new head coach soon, and that coach may want to move on from Geno Smith at quarterback.
The team will have several options to do so, but one that Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio floated is Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts.
Hurts and the Eagles’ 2023 season went down in flames. After starting 10-1, the team lost six of its last seven and got upset by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round.
There is no clear sign that Hurts, who signed a massive new deal this offseason, wants out. But if he does, Florio says the Seahawks are one of the teams that make the most sense.
“You can throw the Seahawks in as well, depending who the new head coach is,” Florio told his co-host Chris Simms on the January 24 episode of his “PFT Live” show.
“You got Geno Smith, where you have an opportunity to get out of the contract, and you could bring in Jalen Hurts if the new head coach decides ‘I think we can make things very special here with Jalen Hurts if he wants out of Philadelphia and needs a fresh start.”
Jalen Hurts May Need a Change of Scenery
After making the Super Bowl in 2022, the Eagles again looked like a championship contender this season right up to the point they absolutely didn’t. And amid the team’s losing streak, Hurts made cryptic comments about not everyone in the locker room being all in.
Following the season, the QB gave head coach Nick Sirianni a tepid endorsement at best, and now, the team has parted ways with offensive coordinator Brian Johnson, who the QB has known since he was 4 or 5 years old, when Hurts’ father helped coach Johnson’s high school team in Baytown, Texas, per Tim McManus of ESPN.
All this has led Florio to have conversations with unnamed NFL sources about the potential of Hurts going elsewhere, despite signing a huge contract extension less than a year ago.
“If Jalen Hurts decides that fresh start is needed for both, and they start having the conversations, the toughest part is finding a suitor. If the team and the player decide, ‘time to go our separate ways,’ you gotta find someone who is willing to take on that contract,” Florio said.
“There’s a lot of guaranteed money on the front end. There’s a window of like 10 days, from the start of the new league year, 10 days after that before the option exercise deadline hits of like $38 million-plus fully guaranteed. They need to do it then if they’re going to do it.”
Thanks to the contracts of both Hurts and Smith, that suitor could be the Seahawks.
How the Seahawks Can Get Jalen Hurts to Replace Geno Smith
Last offseason both Hurts and Smith signed massive contract extensions. As most NFL fans know, though, the details that get reported are rarely what the deal actually is.
After leading the Seahawks to the playoffs, Smith got a reported three-year, $75 million deal with $40 million guaranteed and an average annual value (AAV) of $25 million.
Following the Eagles’ Super Bowl trip, Hurts signed a five-year, $255 million pact with $179.4 million guaranteed and an AAV of $51 million.
Neither contract is quite what it seems, though.
For Smith and the Seahawks, it is essentially a one-year contract worth just north of $27 million. After the 2023 season, the team can get out of the deal and save between $13.8 million and $22.5 million against the salary cap, depending on when they cut or trade him.
As for Hurts, his deal will be for at least that $179.4 million guaranteed number, but as far as salary cap ramifications, it is much more tradeable than some of the massive extensions teams have handed out in recent years.
Florio wrote about this on NBCSports.com on January 23. For the Eagles, “He has been paid $24.3 million so far. The cap hit for a pre-June 1 trade would be only $18.632 million for 2024. He’d then be off the books for 2025.”
For the team that gets Hurts, it’s a little different story.
Can the Seahawks Afford Hurts?
If the Seahawks do want to kick the tires on Hurts, there are some money and contractual concerns to consider, as well as having to give up draft capital to get him.
“Hurts has … $82 million, fully guaranteed, over the next two years; that’s $41 million per year,” Florio wrote. “It works out to $133 million over the next three years, an average of $44.33 million.”
Can the Seahawks afford this?
Well, they can’t right now, but could easily get to a position where they could. Heading into the 2024 offseason, Seattle has $-4,027 in cap space, according to Spotrac. However, with a few moves, general manager John Schneider can open up cap space quickly.
Releasing (or trading) Smith, Tyler Lockett, and Jamal Adams and restructuring DK Metcalf will immediately open $33 million in salary cap space for the Seahawks. That easily allows for Hurts’ $13.5 million cap hit next season.
Now the question is, does it make sense from a football standpoint, and that is harder to answer.
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Seahawks Could Replace Geno Smith With $51 Million QB, Says Insider