Seahawks' Mike Macdonald makes feelings on Geno Smith clear

The Seattle Seahawks firing offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb after one season understandably left some wondering if head coach Mike Macdonald could want an upgrade at quarterback over veteran Geno Smith. 

However, Macdonald made it clear on Tuesday that he wants Smith back for at least one more season. 

"I want Geno to be here," Macdonald said, as shared by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. "I think he’s a heck of a player. The first thing it always comes back to is what’s best for the team. I feel like Geno is 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." 

Smith put pen to paper on a three-year contract in March 2023, but Seattle could have moved on from that deal as soon as last offseason. While the 2024 Seahawks ultimately missed the playoffs, it's understandable Macdonald would feel comfortable with the 34-year-old signal-caller who tossed 15 interceptions while helping the club win 10 of 17 games. 

According to Pro Football Reference, Smith finished this past regular season ranked fourth in the league with 4,320 passing yards, fifth with a 70.4% completion percentage, tied for 13th with 21 passing touchdowns and 12th with a 48.4% passing success rate for the campaign. 

"We did a lot of really good things and one of those things is Geno’s productivity, and this is something that I’m looking forward to building off of," Macdonald added. "I thought he had a really good year. We had a conversation, and 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 a position going to the tournament to go make a run at this thing." 

The perception exists that 2025 will produce a rather weak quarterback draft class. Additionally, Macdonald and Co. may feel no worthwhile replacement for Smith will become available in free agency or via a trade.