Top takeaways from General Manager John Spytek’s media availability at the NFL League Meeting

Eight days after signing Maxx Crosby to a multi-year contract extension, Spytek made his biggest move as a first-time general manager, trading a third-round pick (92nd overall) to Seattle for quarterback Geno Smith. He spoke Monday about that process and the feeling of negotiating his first trade as the leader of an NFL front office.

“It was cool,” Spytek said. “You’re after a quarterback, you’re after an established quarterback, you’re after a quarterback that the head coach believes in and really wants to get on the roster. You don’t want to screw it up, but you want to do a really good trade value for the organization. Everything you give draft-wise, money-wise is one less thing that you can do here. So, trying to find the right spot historically, looking at all the other trades of quarterbacks in their 30s, the Matt Ryans of the world, Tyrod Taylor, you kind of look at all those and then you try to just figure out like, what should this look like? What’s about right?

“But I had a front-row seat for years with [Buccaneers General Manager] Jason [Licht], and that was one of the great things that he gave me was the access to see all these things even though it wasn’t me pulling the final trigger. I had a pretty good feel for it. Ultimately, we made a deal that we felt kind of mirrored what was done in the past for these types of quarterbacks.”