Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith just had what we feel was the best game of his career. To perform the way he did under the circumstances shows that this franchise has a serious competitor starting for them who can occasionally elevate his game to an elite level, even under the worst conditions. Smith was so good last Thursday night that we’ve had to reevaluate which direction the front office should take this coming offseason. Rolling with Geno as QB1 when next season starts should still be the default, no matter how these next five games play out.
However, keeping Smith as the starter going into 2024 should not and cannot stop the Seahawks from searching for other potential future franchise QBs. The need to keep churning at the game’s most important position is one of the main reasons why this team has been one of the most consistently successful since the Matt Hasselbeck era began. If they’d been content to stick with Tarvaris Jackson they wouldn’t have drafted Russell Wilson, and if they’d stood pat then they wouldn’t have found Geno Smith, who’s the main reason the 2023 Seahawks are even remotely competitive despite some serious coaching issues on both sides of the ball.
As it happens, the 2024 NFL draft is loaded with quality quarterback prospects. Top prospects like Caleb Williams from USC and Drake Maye from North Carolina will be out of reach unless they trade up, but there are nearly a dozen other interesting QBs in this class who have the potential to develop into starters at the next level. It’s so loaded that Seattle has three in their own backyard – Washington’s Michael Penix, Oregon’s Bo Nix and Washington State’s Cam Ward are all worth a serious look. So are Jayden Daniels (LSU), Shedeur Sanders (Colorado), J.J. McCarthy (Michigan), Spencer Rattler (South Carolina), KJ Jefferson (Arkansas), and Tua Tagovailoa’s younger brother Taulia at Maryland.
In our latest seven-round mock for the Seahawks we decided to roll the dice on yet another highly-promising 2024 QB prospect…