The Washington Football Team hopes to re-sign Alex Smith, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. Head coach Ron Rivera has been impressed with Smith’s play as of late and believes that he can serve as a strong mentor to Washington’s to-be-determined quarterback of the future.
Smith hasn’t indicated whether he wants to play in 2021, but it stands to reason that he will. The veteran chose to return after 17 surgeries and he’s looked fairly sharp in his last two games. After Smith nearly led the WFT to victory over the Lions, he had little trouble in dispatching the Bengals. Between the two games, Smith has completed 55 of 80 throws for 556 yards with one touchdown against one interception.
Smith still has two full years to go on the four-year, $94MM extension he signed with Washington in 2018. Next year, he’s set to make $18.75MM in base pay, a reasonable sum for a quality bridge/mentor QB. Releasing Smith wouldn’t improve their cap situation much anyway — that’d leave a dead money hit of $8.6MM against $14.7MM in savings.
Smith & Co. will face the Cowboys this afternoon in search of win No. 4.
Think it’s One year left. Not two.
2 years left
Smart move…he’s a better option than that bust Haskins they wasted a draft pick on.
That Bust Haskins (2020 stats) – 4 games, 61% completion, 939 yards, 4 TDs, 3 INT, 6.4 yards per attempt, 10.6 yards per completion, 80.3 rating
Better Option Alex Smith – 4 games, 68% completion, 918 yards, 2 TDs, 3 INT, 7.1 yards per attempt, 10.4 yards per completion, 80.8 rating
Not seeing much of a difference, bud. Except that Haskins is young and learning the position when Smith is old and declining. Washington playing Smith makes absolutely no sense.
One guy is coming off a gruesome injury and a little rust can be expected. The other has started 11 games and shows no improvement and has a QBR in the 70s. While smith isn’t the QB of the future, he can play another 3 years while the skins actually find a young QB that can play the position and learn under smith. Haskins isn’t it.
Offense has been much better with Smith though as he’s a better game manager, yes Haskins needs more playing time to learn that but Washington has a chance to make the playoffs in that god awful division. So why wouldn’t you go with the guy who makes your offense better? The guy also hasn’t played in 2 years so he’s getting back into the groove of it as well.
I love that the Washington could make the playoffs, but idk how far they will go in the playoffs.
Just by watching them and the other 3 NFC east teams play, I’d say it’s about 99% they get beat the first game. They are pretty bad. It’s a shame the NFL would allow horrid teams like any of those nfc east teams in the playoffs.
Wasting draft picks seems to be the standard with this owner !
He’s throwing for 400 yards and they still can’t win. Hope they can turn it around.
Retaining Smith would make sense if Washington had a core group of veterans that could assist in making the team a playoff contender but the reality is that this team is in a rebuilding mode. No point in duplicating the Giants mistake of hanging on to Eli Manning longer than they should have.
This is hardly similar to the Manning situation, which involved Eli being benched for a journeyman veteran who certainly was never going to be a mentor for a young starter. Manning ended up filling in that role, as Smith is expected to, in Jones’ first year, but that transition seemed much less stable and less planned than this proposed one should be. Meaning, Smith will be kept specifically to mentor a new QB, instead of being simply the best QB on the roster.
Manning also played relatively well in his limited action that year before yielding to Jones. I’m not sure how the Giants could be accused of holding on to him too long when they had no future option on the roster-Manning was the best QB they had at the time until they selected a future starter. Geno Smith certainly was not that. It would be one thing if NYG were just missing a QB and insisted on building around Manning only, but the reality is that he started while they tried (and failed) to fill other needs on their team because he was what they had. It didn’t seem like they were pinning their hopes on him, and there wasn’t much support anyway on the roster for him to rely on.
Their quarterback was not their biggest problem, because Manning was still a serviceable starter at the time and the rest of the team was pretty bad. The Giants’ issue was more about losing talent at multiple positions than it was Manning. Washington, however, wants Smith specifically to tutor a new QB, not simply fill in until they find one, like the Giants ended up doing. I don’t that the proposed role for Smith is the same as what ended up happening with Eli. It’s closer to what Smith did in KC or Fitzpatrick did in Miami.
My basic point was that once a team commits to a rebuild there isn’t any point in retaining an aged QB (especially if his salary is a significant percentage of the team cap).
Unless, of course, that aged QB is meant to stabilize a situation not yet ready for a young QB. Do you think that Washington is, at this time, a good setup for a young QB to thrive in?
I cannot believe that I just wasted 5 min of my life reading a story about a QB with 1 1/2 legs under contract until 2022 being resigned to mentor someone in the future.
Kudos to Zach Links for making money writing this.
It took you 5 minutes to read this? Sounds like you have some other problems you need to worry about. It also says the main idea in the title so not sure what else you were expecting from this article.
Savage burn.
I’m curious what you are expecting content-wise from this site.
Ditto
Legitimate news or rumors. Not someone pretending to be a journalist.
This article makes little sense. Why would Washington look to “re-sign” a player who’s already under contract, and who releasing and resigning doesn’t make much sense due to already contracted cap hits?
Huh?
Zach Links is the WFT of reporters.
I think he means re-signing in terms of a contract extension when the current contract expires, or added on to the current deal sometime later this season.
Nope. He is coming home to the niners. Later Jimmy.
You know, Alex Smith with Kyle Shanahan would indeed be a great pair. I really like it.
He’s close to Dan Snyder. He’ll likely get a massive deal.
He will play because he wins. Doesn’t turn it over…accurate passer…makes quick decisions. Rivera finds that refreshing after living with fig Newton for years.
Honestly, I wish he’d retire. Such an inspiring story. After learning about how bad his injury was, and how easily he could injure himself again, it’s time to hang it up. He has nothing left to prove. His return to starting QB has shown his will to heal is as strong as anyone in recent memory, if ever. I’m happy he is able to walk! Go home Alex!
Shouldn’t this headline say “retain” rather than “re-sign”? He’s still under contract two more years…
Not sure where the writer is getting his numbers. But they will pay Alex $19m next year, or save the $19m but take a $10.8m cap hit. The numbers look like a likely renegotiation situation to save actual money and cap space, assuming he doesn’t retire.
Alex is a great mentor QB. Mahomes gives him a ton of credit for helping his development.