How Drew Lock or Geno Smith’s friendship helped the Seahawks’ past quarterbacks
Even though Drew Lock did some great things late in Monday night’s 20–17 win over the former NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles to save the season, coach Pete Carroll continually made clear that Geno Smith is still the team’s starting quarterback.
The coach said, “Yes, Geno is our starter.” Carroll also said on his weekly radio show in Seattle Sports 710 on Tuesday that he thinks Smith will be the starting quarterback again when the Seahawks play during Tennessee on Sunday.
Carroll said again that the choice to go with Lock rather than Smith was made at the last minute.
Smith is still dealing with a groin injury that kept him out of last week’s 28-16 loss at San Francisco. Smith hurt himself in practice on the Thursday, the day before the 49ers game.
Smith was marked as “questionable” for the Eagles game because he had only practiced a little all week. Carroll stated on Saturday that the team wouldn’t know who was going to begin until close to kickoff.
He said Monday night, “Drew took most his plays during the week.” “We really tried to protect Geno for as long as we could and not put him through too much stress since the strain was so short ago.”
The team kept the door open for Smith to play, choosing in part based on how well he did in workouts before the game.
That all happened beforehand the team had to list its players who wouldn’t be playing 90 minutes before the game started.
Smith did some agility skills and threw some passes on the field. Carroll or the general manager John Schneider both said it was a better workout than they thought it would be.
The team felt Smith proved healthy enough to play if they had to, so they kept him on the active line along with Lock and sign-off practice squad player Sean Mannion.
Instead, the team chose to keep Lock in the starting lineup and give Smith another week off to rest. He will only dress in case of an emergency. They hope that this will give his injury more time to heal.
“After the game, Carroll said, “We went out tonight to check if he could play if we needed him to work out.” “He worked out really well and looked great.” That was the hardest workout we gave him.
We were sure we could dress him. We could go see him if we had to, but we hoped we wouldn’t have to, so we could give him another week to heal.
It came way too soon. Smith came back to play and helped the Seahawks make the playoffs with a 9-8 record, but they lost to the 49ers within the wild-card round.
Smith got the starting quarterback job with the Seahawks last year instead of Lock. He said it was “bittersweet” that Lock re-signed via the team in March for another year at a $4 million salary.
That’s both good and bad, Smith told ProFootballTalk. “I know he’s a starter, and I know his can go and do great things.” It was great to be willing to keep up the good friendship we have.
To get that chance, I want him to go somewhere else, but when he’s with me, we’re going to push each other. I get better because of him, and I hope I make himself better too.
Lock, who is 26 years old, will be the No. 2 quarterback below Smith, who is 32 years old. Smith took a bad start with the Jets and then spent some of his NFL career as a backup. He completely turned his career around in Seattle.
After throwing for 4,282 yards, 30 touchdowns, or an NFL-high 69.8 completion percentage in March, the veteran signed a three-year, $105 million contract.
When he joined the Seahawks in 2020, the former Jets or Giants quarterback looked like he would spend the rest of his career behind Russell Wilson. But in March 2022, Wilson was traded to Denver in a huge deal that changed everything.
Lock joined the NFL in 2019 as the second-round selection by the Broncos. He moved to Seattle as part of the Russell Wilson trade, having started 21 games for Denver and helping them go 8–13.