The Seattle Seahawks will finish the 2024 season with a third-straight winning record, but they will miss the playoffs for a consecutive year. Seattle will enter into the offseason with plenty of question marks, including quarterback Geno Smith, who will enter into the final year of his contract. Smith was plagued this season by untimely interceptions, especially in the red zone, which became serious issues down the stretch. As the legendary Peyton Manning once said, quarterbacks sign the check with every pass thrown, and ultimately, interceptions are a quarterback stat.
However, not every interception thrown is created equal, and there can be other mitigating factors. Such was the case with Geno Smith. On Twitter, user @_danchu, otherwise known as “Chickens and Mentals Caretaker,” took it upon himself to break down all 15 of Smith’s interceptions this year. For all the criticism Smith has taken, it’s time to take a closer look to judge whether or not the lion’s share of the blame should be placed on No. 7. Numbers never lie, but they don’t always tell the whole story.
Every 2024 Geno INT + Dropped INT 🧵
— Chickens and Mentals Caretaker (@_danchu) December 30, 2024
Answering questions like:
What happened?
Did Geno have any net-positive alternatives?
Was it on Geno, an external factor, or both? Will keep count in Geno-External-Both format
Dropped INTs charted by SIS (thanks to @cmikesspinmove) pic.twitter.com/hyMwidk0D5
INT 2
— Chickens and Mentals Caretaker (@_danchu) December 30, 2024
Another protection breakdown from left to middle. In the EZ so taking a sack/int grounding is a 2 pt loss. Has to get rid of it while spinning out of a sack, throws one high to Charb who tips it in the air. No real alternative that doesn’t end negative here.
0-2-0 pic.twitter.com/aE9sPh96CC
INT 4
— Chickens and Mentals Caretaker (@_danchu) December 30, 2024
Down 15 pts w 1 min remaining. Garbage time INT giving your WR a chance in a situation that is essentially meaningless as scoring still would have required an onside + TD + 2pt to tie. No one even open here, horrible play design. Guess he could have thrown it away.
0-3-1 pic.twitter.com/9XSNjKRjAx
INT 6
— Chickens and Mentals Caretaker (@_danchu) December 30, 2024
The infamous DK freelance play. Geno faces instant pressure again from left and middle but finds a window for DK on dig but DK decides to turn downfield. DK took ownership post game that he ran the wrong route.
0-4-2 pic.twitter.com/K1v2UX5Bfg
INT 8
— Chickens and Mentals Caretaker (@_danchu) December 30, 2024
Good protection, good route, good throw. Fluke drop from JSN resulting in a tipped interception. Nothing else but to catch the pass here.
0-5-3 pic.twitter.com/L26uxUohpc
INT 10
— Chickens and Mentals Caretaker (@_danchu) December 30, 2024
And another instant pressure off the edge. Geno throws around him this time however DT 55 gets away with an uncalled defensive hold/DPI on Barner, preventing him from reaching out to a catchable pass. If the zebras did their job here this would have been nullified.
0-6-4 pic.twitter.com/tpcNCsLzqB
INT 12
— Chickens and Mentals Caretaker (@_danchu) December 30, 2024
Good initial pocket, but again nothing open at the top of his drop. Uninspiring play call. Geno bails from a collapsing pocket and doesn’t see the corner keying on Tyler for the scramble drill. Geno had free yards in front of him if he simply tucked it. On him.
2-6-4 pic.twitter.com/74OLucQp8U
INT 14
— Chickens and Mentals Caretaker (@_danchu) December 30, 2024
Nothing open at the top of Geno’s drop in progression. Delayed LB blitz pressures Geno out of the pocket and now he’s looking for Fant to work back to him but he doesn’t. Forces it here so on Geno. But no room for a positive play here, just a throwaway.
3-6-5 pic.twitter.com/t2wvBXpLH4
INT 15
— Chickens and Mentals Caretaker (@_danchu) December 31, 2024
C gets beat instantly, causing disruptive pressure and Geno throwing off the back foot ASAP to not die. He’s throwing to an open spot for DK to cut to the sticks and out of bounds but DK is rounding out his break and unaware of the sped up throw.
3-7-5 pic.twitter.com/senRTkD7xT
After this interception breakdown, @_danchu went on to breakdown dropped interceptions nearly thrown as well. The thread remains excellent, and can be viewed here. It is in the same format as how the interceptions were discussed.
Final Tally:
— Chickens and Mentals Caretaker (@_danchu) December 31, 2024
INTs: 3-7-5
Dropped: 4-3-3
Total: 7-10-8
The biggest theme I’ve seen from ALL of these plays is how I was only able to identify 2/25 where Geno could have clearly gone elsewhere for a POSITIVE play. Most else was good process or attempts to mitigate negatives