Seahawks-Raiders Geno Smith deal ranked NFL's most-impactful trade this offseason

No team around the NFL made bigger changes to their roster this offseason than the Seattle Seahawks, who shook up the core of their offensive identity with a couple of huge trades in March.

Sending star wide receiver DK Metcalf away to the Pittsburgh Steelers was a big move, but the most-impactful deal of the entire offseason came when Seattle dealt starting quarterback Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raider for a third-round pick, according to Tom Blair at NFL.com.

NFL.com on Seahawks-Raiders Geno Smith trade

"Smith brings something more appealing to the table, an element his new team has been without for too long: a high floor. In each of the past three seasons, he posted a passer rating of 92.1 or better, which no Raiders QB managed to do in that span... Can Smith can win a Lombardi Trophy this season? Who knows? But he does have a good shot to make a Raiders reset finally stick, andthatwould be plenty impactful enough to justify his position here."

In fact, you could argue that the Raiders had the worst quarterback room in the entire league last year - not counting the long-suffering Cleveland Browns, who once again might have to look to Joe Flacco as their best option to start in 2025.

The Raiders gave Geno Smith real vote of confidence by passing on all of the top quartback prospects in the 2025 NFL draft, electing not to pick one up until they took Cam Miller from NDSU in the sixth round.

Miller is no threat to Smith's status as the Raiders' presumed Week 1 starter, and neither Aidan O'Connell or any other quarterback on their roster.

As for the Seahawks, they quickly pivoted to targeting the top free agent quarterback in this class. Just a couple days after trading Smith they signed Sam Darnold to a three-year, $100 million deal that may be more accurately described as a one-year, $37.5 million deal, depending on how things go.

We believe Darnold will be at least a modest upgrade over what Seattle got from Smith the last three years, but these two will be closely linked for the rest of their careers and it will be interesting to see how they perform in their new homes.