The Seattle Seahawks bring us to our final quarterback battle before the start of the season between Drew Lock and Geno Smith. For the first time since 2011, Russell Wilson will not be quarterbacking the Seahawks, forcing Pete Carroll to decide on his week 1 starter.
This upcoming season is a transition year for the Seahawks with no long-term solution at quarterback on their roster, a struggling defense, and in one of the toughest divisions in the league that had three teams make the playoffs last year. Thus, putting Carroll in an impossible situation to manage when both quarterback options have not shown much promise in their careers.
That being said, Seattle is not the worst place to play quarterback at the moment as their offense is full of talent surrounding the quarterback position. Seattle still has one of the best one-two punches in the league with D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett at wide receiver. In the backfield, Rashad Penny had a breakout season last year averaging 6.3 yards per rush, with also six touchdowns in six starts. Seattle also landed a young, talented tight end from the Wilson trade, Noah Fant who has played over 15 games in each of his three seasons.
One of the starting options at quarterback also came by way of the Wilson trade, Drew Lock. This will be Lock’s fourth year in the league, spending three of them with the Denver Broncos getting occasional starts. Lock has had 21 starts in his career and has a record of 8-13. He also struggled immensely last year when filling in for Teddy Bridgewater by only racking up 780 passing yards across three starts, despite having an elite running back tandem and a capable receiving core in Denver. No team is looking to give Lock the keys to their franchise, but if he has a decent season with Carroll in Seattle, it could set up Lock to be a solid backup quarterback option for years to come. Lock would not start for almost every team in the NFL, but luckily, he finds himself on a team where his only competition is Geno Smith. Lock will become an unrestricted free agent in 2023.
Geno Smith is the other option for Carroll to consider at quarterback. The ex-New York Jet has found his way back into the starter conversation after getting some starts last season due to Wilson’s injury to his thumb sidelining him for a month. Smith in his three starts had a 68.4% completion percentage and five passing touchdowns to only one interception. Smith has also been with Carroll and the Seahawks since the 2020 season, making him the safest choice as starter due to his familiarity with the system. The Seahawks front office were pleased enough with Smith’s performance last year they re-signed him to a one-year, $3.5 million contract.
Carroll has been equally pleased with both Smith and Lock so far saying, “They’ve been really impressive. And it’s not been any one sequence here or one day here. They have just been solid throughout. We’ve shared a ton of reps. Geno has gone with the first group throughout, but they’ve had very close to equal reps in situational opportunities throughout. … They’ve done a terrific job so far. They look in control. Geno’s still ahead, you can tell that, but it’s not going to be too much for Drew to be caught up. By the time we get through camp, he’ll be there” (Brady Henderson, ESPN).
With less than 50 days to go until the start of the new NFL season, Carroll will need to decide if he wants to go with the safer, veteran option in Geno Smith or if he wants to squeeze whatever potential Drew Lock has not shown yet to fans across the league.
