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INDIANAPOLIS — According to John Schneider, Geno Smith is undoubtedly the Seattle Seahawks’ starting quarterback — for now.

During a news conference at the NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday afternoon, the Seahawks’ general manager and president of football operations was asked if he considers Smith, whose $12.7 million base salary became fully guaranteed earlier this month, the team’s starting quarterback.

“Yes,” Schneider said. “(He’s) the starter until he’s not.”

On Thursday, Schneider restructured Smith’s contract — a decision he could make unilaterally because of a clause built into the deal — and pushed half of Smith’s $9.6 million roster bonus into 2025, creating $4.8 million in immediate salary-cap space. Smith’s 2024 cap hit dropped to $26.4 million, which is 10.1 percent of the salary cap, according to Over the Cap.

Schneider classified the contract restructure as a routine cap saving measure and not a move that signals anything about Smith’s future with the franchise.

“Other people made a bigger deal out of that than we did in the building,” Schneider said. “‘Is he gonna be here? Is he not gonna be here?’ He was going to be here. It’s a matter of when are we going to tell him we’re doing this with his roster bonus?”

Schneider’s tepid endorsement of Smith comes on the heels of coach Mike Macdonald’s casting uncertainty about the quarterback’s place in the organization during a television interview with Fox 13 Seattle that aired Sunday (the interview was recorded Thursday before the news of the restructure).

When asked if both Smith and backup quarterback Drew Lock (who is a free agent) are in Seattle’s plans, Macdonald said: “That’s a tough question, and it’s one that I probably can’t answer right now. We’re doing a lot of work on those guys, and I’ve had conversations just to get to know them and understand who they are as people, their background, goals and what their families are like, where they’re from — I didn’t know anything about them coming into this whole thing.”

Schneider’s remarks at the combine and Macdonald’s choice not to answer in the affirmative when speaking about Smith speak to the reality of the team’s quarterback situation: Smith is their guy for the moment, but the Seahawks are leaving the door open and giving themselves the flexibility to make a move, either for an immediate replacement or a long-term successor.