The Seattle Seahawks dropped another tough game on Sunday, losing 27-24 to the Minnesota Vikings. The defeat was once again incredibly costly, as the Seahawks are on the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs. Now, for the third year in a row, Seattle’s fate lies with getting help from other teams.
Of course, losing such a critical game like this, it is only natural to where to place blame. One such target, as he often is, is quarterback Geno Smith. In many ways, Sunday’s game was a microcosm for Smith’s 2024 season. Smith threw the ball 43 times, completed 72% of those attempts for 311 yards, tossed three touchdowns, but had two brutal interceptions – including one late to ice the game for Minnesota.
One could assign a fair amount of blame on DK Metcalf on the last pick as he ran a terrible route, but interceptions are a quarterback-exclusive stat. So what did his head coach think of his performance? After the game, Mike Macdonald gave a quick assessment of his starting quarterback, and offered some defense to him.
Geno is our top competitor on our football team,” Macdonald stated. “We’re not sitting here with life at the end of December unless Geno has done the things he’s done. He’s a fighter, man. I thought he played a good game.”
Macdonald is correct. Criticism of Geno Smith is entirely fair. It comes with the territory of being a starting quarterback in the National Football League, and Smith is no exception. I will even outright agree that his red zone interception problem is a considerable concern! While he did not end Sunday with any on the stat sheet, he did have one that was dropped by a Vikings defender.
What I will also say is Smith is a good quarterback, and a couple more interceptions from bad routes (a problem he’s had to deal with at other points in the year) isn’t going to change my assessment of him. If you want to argue the Seahawks should upgrade at quarterback at some point, I would agree. I am not going to stake my claim that this should be the situation at quarterback for years to come. What I am arguing is who is out there, that the Seahawks can reasonably get, that is a clear upgrade over Geno Smith?
Because it certainly is not an in-house option.
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