If you haven’t gone out and done some Black Friday shopping, jockeying for position in a line in frigid cold temperatures with a bunch of people who desperately want a waffle maker, you haven’t lived. In the NFL this season, there have been a number of players and even coaches worth standing in an ice-cold line at 3 AM for, if that were even possible.
With Black Friday shopping set to commence, we take a look at some of the best values in the entire NFL so far in the 2022 season. Of course, any number of players on rookie contracts could be considered for this, so we are looking strictly at veteran players, but rookie head coaches were certainly considered…
NFL Black Friday bargain no. 1: Geno Smith, QB, Seahawks
2022 cap hit: $3.5 million (36th among QBs)
I’m not sure even the most passionate Seattle Seahawks fan could have seen this coming. Geno Smith’s emergence here in the 2022 season has been nothing short of incredible, bordering on miraculous, and even unprecedented. Early on in his career with the New York Jets, Smith was a highly-touted second-round pick out of West Virginia, and the pressure of being a high draft choice in New York was insurmountable.
Although Geno was only a second-round pick and not a top-10 pick or anything, he was still supposed to bring franchise-QB-type abilities to the table and he ended up throwing a bunch of pick-sixes. After spending so many years as a backup in the NFL — to Philip Rivers and Russell Wilson — Smith was in a training camp battle with Drew Lock to be Seattle’s starting QB in 2022.
Looking back on it now, that battle seems silly. Smith has completed almost 73 percent of his throws this season with 17 touchdowns and only four interceptions, as the Seahawks look like a legitimate threat to win the NFC West when nobody expected it.