If Mike Macdonald has his way, Geno Smith will be back in 2025, playing under a new offensive coordinator and possibly an extension.

In his final presser of the season, Macdonald told reporters, “I want Geno to be here. … I feel like Geno is the best (quarterback) for the team right now.”

But Macdonald also indicated nothing is set in stone, which explains his cryptic answer the previous day on Seattle Sports 710 AM when asked if Smith would be back: “I guess yeah.”

Smith’s cap hit will be $44.5 million, which means the team could look at lowering it with an extension or perhaps even moving on if a deal cannot be reached. The latter seems very unlikely though — Smith is a top-15 QB (No. 13 by EPA over the past three years), and there are no better options for Seattle in 2025.

“Ultimately, it’s not my decision,” Macdonald said. “It’s a Seahawks decision. But Geno knows how we feel about him — and we love him as our starting quarterback, for sure.”

Smith bet on himself in 2023, when he signed a three-year, $75 million deal. By hitting $6 million in incentives in the final game of this season, he bumped his March 16 roster bonus up to $16 million and his 2025 scheduled payout to $31 million.

The 34-year-old reportedly wants a new deal, but he has little leverage – he set team records for volume passing (attempts, completions, yards) and percentage (70.4) but also was too low on touchdown passes (21) and too high on interceptions (15, including four in the red zone). No team was interested in trading for him last year, and that figures to remain the case.

As we have said, the Seahawks do not have to do anything. They have enough other moves to make to give themselves the cap space they need. But the Hawks probably want to shrink that $44.5 million hit.

They could easily give Smith a two-year extension to soften the 2025 cap hit and raise his average up to around $30 million — or even $37 million, where Aaron Rodgers and Derek Carr were in 2024. Better than the raise, Smith could get around $40 million fully guaranteed – which is $13 million more than he got in the three-year deal that ended up averaging $27 million a year.

Macdonald seems amenable to that. Now we need to see whether John Schneider and Smith can work it out.

What Mike Mac wants in OC

Macdonald set the mandate for the new offensive coordinator: “We want our offense to be a physical unit, dictate terms to the defense, play complementary football and get the ball to our playmakers frequently in space. Let our quarterback play fast.”

Ryan Grubb had a hard time doing any of those things, which explains why he is gone and Macdonald is looking for someone to do his bidding properly.

A new OC will impact the vision at QB as well. Macdonald said, “That’s definitely going to be a topic of conversation.”

He said the new OC does not have to have play-calling experience: “We want to have an open mind. Want to try to find the best fit for our football team and the guys we have on offense right now.”

That clearly means using Ken Walker III, Zach Charbonnet and DK Metcalf to better effect. All were underused by Grubb, which largely explains why the Hawks are out of the playoffs.

“Complementary football” basically means a balanced attack, so you can bet Macdonald will be looking at the teams that do that best. That possibly starts with Green Bay (51-49 pass-run ratio) and Detroit (52-48), which both were in the top five in rushing first downs per game.

Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington and Buffalo are all deceptively balanced because their quarterbacks boost their rushing output significantly. Pulling an OC from their staffs might not make as much sense.

With Ben Johnson likely leaving the Lions, Tanner Engstrand would seem to be his replacement and thus not an option for Seattle, which interviewed him in 2024.

So the Packers’ top two offensive assistants, Adam Stenavich and Jason Vrable, might be the best options.