Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks.
When I was a kid, there was a strategy I often employed when I did something I knew would land me in trouble. It was a combination of wishing and willful ignorance. I would simply move on with my life and hope that nobody noticed or found out what I did. The strategy worked about thirty percent of the time, but the other two-thirds or so would implode spectacularly. Sometime down the road, I’ll tell you about the Batman mask, a Dodge Aries, and neighborhood garbage cans.
What does this have to do with the Seattle Seahawks? Pete Carroll is using this same technique to figure out who his starting quarterback will be in Week 1.
Tuesday, he essentially punted on naming a starter. Coach Pete said the team would use every last minute of their training camp competition to evaluate the candidates.
That would be fine if Carroll were talking about a battle at almost any other position. But at this point, he should probably know who’s taking the wheel and steering the offense. Apparently, Pete and Offensive Coordinator Shane Waldron haven’t seen enough from Geno Smith or Drew Lock to anoint either as his guy.
An interesting situation considering that the Seahawks had their choice of several different passers in the offseason. Aside from trading for Baker Mayfield or Nick Foles, they could have signed one .of several free agent quarterbacks with better track records than either Geno Smith or Drew Lock.
As for the Seattle Seahawks’ current combatants, it will come down to the quarterback who doesn’t lose the job with his lackluster play.
Due to Covid, the coaching staff hasn’t gotten as much of a look at Lock as they would have liked. It would make for a great excuse and provide an opportunity for wish-casting if they didn’t have his performances in Denver to let them know that he probably isn’t going to set the football world ablaze.
Lock has a great arm, but unfortunately, his propensity to hurl spirals to open defensive backs has always made him a less than stellar starting QB option. Do they expect anything to change in Seattle? Tennessee’s Ryan Tannehill is very much the exception rather than the rule for a quarterback positively turning his career 180 degrees in the opposite direction due to a change of scenery.
As for the current front-runner, what can anyone say about Geno Smith that hasn’t already been said about such luminaries as Todd Collins, Shane Matthews, or Tommy Maddox? Smith showed last season he can play just well enough to make a critical mistake in the fourth quarter and cost the Seattle Seahawks a “W.”
Geno is a poor man’s Jacoby Brissett. And that’s not really the kind of guy who will lead the team beyond the three-win threshold.
We all know that Jimmy Garoppolo is lurking out on the periphery. But I’m not sure he’s going to move the needle much. Jimmy G. is an injury-prone system quarterback, and Seattle has an iffy line and no coherent offensive system.
If he’s hoping to put up some big numbers to get a long-term deal next season, throwing 12 passes a game for a mediocre Seattle Seahawks squad, the Emerald City may not be the best place for him. Besides, the Seahawks made it clear they won’t trade for Garoppolo. He’s one injury away from getting dealt to another team.
So, where does that leave the Seahawks? Well, they basically are making a choice similar to the ones the kids at South Park Elementary had when it came time to pick a new mascot.
Seattle can go with the higher ceiling/lower floor option in Lock or the opposite way by choosing Smith. Neither QB is an actual NFL-caliber starter, but no one in the Seattle brain trust wants to acknowledge it.
I get why the Seattle Seahawks traded Russell Wilson and even why they didn’t draft his replacement in a weak quarterback class. What there is no excuse for is Seattle going into the season with their current QB room. Carroll and GM John Schneider are just whistling and walking through the VMac, hoping 12’s won’t notice they forgot to get a QB for the season.
I’d wish them luck, but I don’t think they’ll be able to pull it off. Maybe Pete can coach Week 1 wearing my old batman mask and distract everyone from the quarterback conundrum. To paraphrase Brian Fantana’s favorite cologne tagline….30% of the time, it works every time.
Do you think the Seattle Seahawks should have named the Week 1 starting quarterback? Let us know in the comments section below.