Role reversal? Russell Wilson could be Geno Smith’s backup with Jets

Four years after the Seattle Seahawks moved on from Russell Wilson and moved forward with his backup Geno Smith as their quarterback, a shocking twist is suddenly on the table.

Daniel Jeremiah says Seahawks had ‘boringly good’ draft

According to Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic, Wilson had a free agent visited Monday night with the New York Jets, who made a trade earlier this offseason to make Smith their starting QB.

That means Wilson, who had Smith as his backup for three seasons in Seattle, could now potentially become Smith’s backup in the Big Apple.

The 37-year-old Wilson is currently a free agent after playing six games with three starts in 2025 with the New York Giants. Prior to joining the Jets, Wilson started 11 games for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2024.

Wilson quarterbacked the Seahawks to back-to-back Super Bowls in the second and third years of his career, including a title in 2013, but he couldn’t replicate the success he enjoyed with Seattle after going to Denver in 2022. He had an 11-19 record in 30 starts for the Broncos before they released him after the 2023 campaign.

Smith, 35, served as Seattle’s No. 2 option at QB behind Wilson from 2019-21. The former second-round pick came to the Seahawks after failed attempts at starting for the Jets and New York Giants plus a stint as a backup with the Los Angeles Chargers. He played well in a four-game stretch for the Seahawks while Wilson was injured in 2021, then became a Pro Bowler and won Comeback Player of the Year honors in 2022 after Seattle sent Wilson to Denver in a franchise-changing trade.

The Seahawks eventually moved on from Smith after the 2024 season, trading him to the Las Vegas Raiders, where he reunited for a season with former Hawks coach Pete Carroll. But after a disappointing 2025 campaign, the Raiders fired Carroll and traded Smith back to his original team, the Jets, ahead of taking national championship QB Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft last Thursday.

Geno Smith sees a chance to ‘make things right’ in return to Jets

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