Tag: Geno Smith

Geno Smith says Ryan Grubb’s playbook has plays he’s never seen before

Here’s what Geno had to say about Grubb’s scheme on the Jim Rome show.

Geno Smith has been playing quarterback for about 20 years now, including his time in the NFL, at West Virginia and Miramar High School in Florida. That’s a lot of different playbooks to digest, so Smith has seen pretty much everything a QB can in his time. However, new Seahawks offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb has some zesty recipes that apparently Smith hasn’t seen before.

Here’s what Geno had to say about Grubb’s scheme on the Jim Rome show.

Grubb may not have the same level of talent that he did at Washington compared to the competition he will be facing in the NFL, but the work he did there over the last two years shows that he can run a balanced, aggressive pro style system.

The only real unanswered question is if he can still do it with a poor offensive line. Seattle’s front line unit was ranked No. 27 in the league in our recent consensus OL rankings, while Washington had perhaps the best in the nation with Grubb. One common denominator is offensive line coach Scott Huff, who’s followed Grubb over from the Huskies where he held the same position. Much depends on how well Huff does his job.

More Seahawks Wire stories

Seahawks projections for 8 key offensive players in 2024

ESPN ranks all 32 teams’ cornerback units after the draft

ESPN ranks all 32 teams’ safety units after the 2024 draft

Geno Smith on what he likes about Ryan Grubb’s offense

Geno Smith on what he likes about Ryan Grubb’s offense

It is the season of change for the Seattle Seahawks. Not only did they replace Pete Carroll with Mike Macdonald as head coach, but practically the entire coaching staff was switched out as well… including the offensive coordinator position. This year, Seattle hired former University of Washington (and Alabama, for about a week) offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb to be the one in charge of that side of the ball.

In a league where coordinators are turned over year to year, there has been decent job security in Seattle at this position. Grubb is only the third offensive coordinator in the last seven seasons, but I think it is safe to say he comes with the most excitement among fans. The Seattle faithful got to see what Grubb’s offense could do, as the Huskies fielded easily the best unit in the nation last year en route to the National Championship.

So far, Grubb is coming in with plenty of positive hype from fans… and his new quarterback. Geno Smith took to the media to sing Grubb’s praises.

It is not surprising Smith is finding himself in favor of Grubb’s system. While Smith does have hidden mobility, he definitely is more of a prototypical pocket passer when it comes to the quarterback position. This is a similar to description to former Washington (now Falcons) quarterback Michael Penix Jr. Penix could move, but he primarily stayed in the pocket and distributed the ball at a high level.

It worked out well for Penix, who threw for 9,544 yards and 67 touchdowns in the two years he played for Grubb.

Last year, Smith was better than his numbers might suggest. He set a new NFL record with five game-winning drives last year, as well as setting another record by throwing seven go-ahead touchdown passes in the fourth quarter/overtime. The Seahawks offense was terribly inconsistent, but Smith was not the primary concern.

Should Grubb find a way to get all his weapons proper usage, and have Smith distribute accordingly, this offense could go back to looking how it was in 2022… or perhaps greater.

More Seahawks Wire stories

Mike Macdonald: Geno Smith is ‘answering the call’ for the Seahawks

Ranking all 32 NFL teams by average Relative Athletic Score

7 takeaways from Seattle’s open OTAs practice on Wednesday

4 key Seahawks players who need to elevate their game in 2024

Mike Macdonald: Geno Smith is ‘answering the call’ for Seahawks

Mike Macdonald: Geno Smith is ‘answering the call’ for Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks have been rolling with Geno Smith as their starting quarterback for the last two years, and it looks like it will go on to a third. Despite trading for former Washington Commanders quarterback Sam Howell, the Seahawks were quick to name Smith the starter.

So far in the early days of the summer, Smith seems to be proving to his team they made the right decision. Head coach Mike Macdonald recently spoke with the media, and had nothing but positives to say about his quarterback.

With a new regime in place and a first time head coach, developing a relationship is going to be critical for both men. There’s no doubt Smith was close with Pete Carroll, who routinely was in his corner as one of his biggest advocates. So far, it seems he is in a good place with Macdonald. Ultimately, both will need each other if they want to see the Seahawks find success in 2024.

We are still far too early in this part of the season to determine how things will play out. But for now, the 2022 Comeback Player of the Year and two-time Pro Bowler is making a good impression on his new coaching staff.

More Seahawks Wire stories

Ranking all 32 NFL teams by average Relative Athletic Score

7 takeaways from Seattle’s open OTAs practice on Wednesday

4 key Seahawks players who need to elevate their game in 2024

Ranking the top 30 iDL in the league after the 2024 NFL draft

ESPN only has 2 Seahawks in top 100 fantasy players for 2024

The Seattle Seahawks only had two players make the top 100 in the fantasy rankings this year for Field Yates at ESPN.

The Seattle Seahawks only had two players make the top 100 in the fantasy rankings this year for Field Yates at ESPN.

Wide receiver DK Metcalf came in at No. 34 on Yates’ list. He finished the 2023 season with 66 catches, over 1,100 yards and eight touchdowns despite having to split targets with Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Moving forward, Metcalf should remain one of the most reliable fantasy producers, if not one of the most prolific. He has never posted less than 900 yards or six touchdowns in a single season.

The other Seahawk who made the cut was running back Ken Walker, who came in at No. 41 on Yates’ list. In his second year in the league Walker racked up 905 rushing yards on 219 carries and scored eight touchdowns. He added another 29 catches, 259 yards and a score as a receiver. Walker still looks to be pretty far ahead of Zach Charbonnet, so expect those kind of touches to continue.

We may see other Seahawks deserving of this list when the season arrives, but it’s hard to see with so many mouths to feed. Lockett, JSN and tight end Noah Fant are all fully capable of posting 1,000 receiving yards – but none of them are likely to get enough targets to get there. Geno Smith has been an excellent In Real Life passer but his fantasy numbers the last two years have been underwhelming, so don’t expect to see him on this list at any point in the near future.

On the other hand, there is a rather big unknown here in new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who might just be able to fit all the pieces together and have Seattle’s offense firing on all cylinders. Grubb was arguably the best playcaller in college football over the last couple of seasons and he did it running a pro-style offense.

That bodes well for Grubb and the fantasy outlook for some key Seahawks players, but there’s another factor that’s likely to work against him in a bad way. At Washington Grubb had perhaps the best offensive line in the nation, whereas at this level he’ll have one of the worst compared to the competition.

More Seahawks Wire stories

Ranking all 32 NFL teams by average Relative Athletic Score

7 takeaways from Seattle’s open OTAs practice on Wednesday

4 key Seahawks players who need to elevate their game in 2024

Ranking the top 30 iDL in the league after the 2024 NFL draft

Watch: Seahawks QBs Sam Howell and Geno Smith throwing at OTAs

Here are all the clips we could find of Seattle’s two quarterbacks throwing the rock around at practice.

The Seattle Seahawks held their first OTAs practice of the year that was open to the media on Wednesday. We learned a lot about how new head coach Mike Macdonald runs things and where this team stands as the first major phase of the offseason gets going.

One of the more interesting things we learned is that quarterbacks won’t be wearing red jerseys in Macdonald’s practices the way they did under Pete Carroll. Starter Geno Smith and backup Sam Howell were spotted wearing throwback blue jerseys, while the rest of the offense wore the navy blue tops. Here are all the clips we could find of Seattle’s two quarterbacks throwing the rock around at practice.

Geno Smith, Sam Howell throwing up the seams

Smith and Howell throwing hook and stick routes

Howell airs one out for Jaxon Smith-Njigba

We also heard from Macdonald after practice. Here’s what he had to say about his quarterbacks.

Mike Macdonald comments on QBs

More Seahawks Wire stories

Ranking the top 30 iDL in the league after the 2024 NFL draft

7 takeaways from Seattle’s first open OTAs practice on Wednesday

4 key Seahawks players who need to elevate their game in 2024

Ranking all 17 Seahawks games in 2024 from easiest to hardest

Geno Smith snubbed from PFF’s top 30 players over 30 list

to leave Geno Smith off of this list entirely seems like an oversight.

Feeding off perceived disrespect has become a long-standing tradition for the Seattle Seahawks. While it’s part of any professional athlete’s toolbox, this franchise seems to have drawn more than their fair share of competitors who thrive off of it. From Richard Sherman and Doug Baldwin in the past to Byron Murphy II today, there have certainly a been a lot of them.

One of the most under-appreciated in the group is Geno Smith, who went from being a punchline backup to one of the better starters in the league over the last two seasons. Even still, Smith is not getting his due and proper. The latest slight is Smith being left off the Pro Football Focus list of the top 30 players in the NFL over 30 years old.

At the top of PFF’s list are slam-dunk cases like 49ers left tackle Trent Williams, Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill and Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones, who are all legitimate superstars. Others like George Kittle, Matt Stafford and Bobby Wagner are also very worthy cases further down the list. However, to leave Geno Smith off of this list entirely seems like an oversight.

At the very least, Smith should have made the cut over the guards who occupy two of the last three spots at the bottom of the list. Joel Bitonio of the Browns and Joe Thuney from the Chiefs are both superb linemen but it’s no knock on them to say that Smith offers far, far, far more value to his team than they do – or any guard in the NFL for that matter.

More bulletin board material.

More Seahawks Wire stories

7 takeaways from Seattle’s open OTAs practice Wednesday

Ranking each starting QB the Seahawks will face in 2024

Ranking all 17 Seahawks games from easiest to hardest

Geno Smith, Sam Howell, Byron Murphy practice at Seahawks OTAs

Here’s a look at a few videos they shared.

The Seahawks and 20 other teams around the NFL began their OTAs (offseason team activities) yesterday. While Monday’s practice was not open to the media (tomorrow’s will be) the team was kind enough to share a few clips on their official Twitter account from practice.

Here’s a look at a few videos they shared.

Geno Smith and Sam Howell throwing

Geno Smith to DK Metcalf

Byron Murphy II vs. blocking sled

More Seahawks Wire stories

4 key Seahawks players who need to elevate their game in 2024

Ranking all 17 games on 2024 schedule from easiest to hardest

Ranking all 32 NFL teams by ESPN’s projected 2024 win totals

Seahawks all-time record vs. every team on their 2024 schedule

Seahawks 2024 schedule rumors: Broncos visiting Week 1, Lions on MNF?

As for the Seahawks, there hasn’t been much in the way of leaks or rumors.

In about 12 hours the NFL will officially release the full schedule for the 2024 regular season. In the meantime, the league is leaking matchups all over the place, including the season opener between the Ravens and Chiefs, the Eagles vs. Packers game the next night in Brazil and the Jets visiting the 49ers in the first Monday Night Football matchup of the year.

As for the Seahawks, there hasn’t been much in the way of leaks or rumors. Here’s a quick review of everything we have seen on social media. First, local radio personality Dave Mahler says he’s “hearing” the team will host the Broncos Week 1 on Sunday, Sept. 8.

The Broncos of course visited the Seahawks to start the season two years ago, in another MNF game billed as Russell Wilson’s revenge game. Seattle won in an instant classic, 17-16 and the modern, upgraded version of Geno Smith was born.

Since then these two teams have gone in different directions. While Seattle finished the last two years 9-8, the Broncos went 5-12 in 2022 and then 8-9 last season. Despite a marked improvement they decided to start over at quarterback, ditching Wilson and eating around 80 bajillion dollars in dead money. Heading into 2024 the most likely candidate to start is rookie Bo Nix out of Oregon, who they picked at No. 12 overall. Veteran Zach Wilson may also be in the mix to start early on.

The only other rumor we have seen related to the Seahawks is coming out of Detroit sports radio – where they’re saying the Lions will host Seattle in Week 4 on Monday Night Football.

This makes sense on the surface at least, as these two teams have played thrilling shootouts each of the last two seasons in Detroit, with Seattle barely coming out on top in both cases, 48-45 and 37-31.

However, this is your yearly reminder to take everything you read on Twitter or hear on the radio with a healthy dose of salt.

More Seahawks Wire stories

Ranking all 32 offensive lines around the league after the draft