Seahawks’ Geno Smith-Drew Lock QB competition includes...Jeezy, Drake and free throws?
The Seahawks’ competition between Geno Smith and Drew Lock to succeed departed quarterback Russell Wilson includes Jeezy, Drake and free throws.
Wait...what?
First, Smith, the 31-year-old veteran who’s been with Seattle three years, and the 24-year-old Lock, acquired as part of the team’s massive trade of Wilson to Denver in March, want you to know they don’t exactly hate each other.
It’s the opposite.
“Man, Drew’s cool as heck, man. I love the guy to death,” Smith said in a glowing tribute to his competitor Wednesday following minicamp practice.
“He’s a young guy who can throw it. Has got all the ability in the world. He’s very smart. And just one of the guys, man. He’s one of the guys. He’s got a great feel for the locker room. Guys love him, love talking to him.
“We see him rappin’ Jeezy, and all that cool stuff.
“I really like Drew.”
Lock doesn’t stop at Jeezy.
“I can rap Drake pretty much all day,” Lock said.
Smith and Lock are working together in the team’s quarterback room with offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and QBs coach Dave Canales. They are installing Waldron’s playbook for the 2022 season. They are reviewing film of what Seattle ran and how defenses played last season, Waldron’s first as the Seahawks’ play caller.
Smith and Lock are also working together to win the team’s free-throw shooting contest Thursday. Lock was considered a major-college basketball prospect as a 6-foot-4 shoot guard coming out of Lee’s Summit High School in Missouri, in 2015. He and Smith are facing tackle Poona Ford and another defensive lineman in the finals inside the Seahawks’ main meeting auditorium on the final day of this three-day minicamp.
“Championship round tomorrow,” Lock said, “against the D-line, believe it or not. Very interesting.
“We’ve yet to be beat, knock on wood. Don’t think it’s going to happen tomorrow, but me and Geno just got to come out hot — like Jayson Tatum.”
Yet Lock and Smith know shooting hoops against defensive tackles while pretending to be the Boston Celtics’ star isn’t going to determine who becomes Seattle’s quarterback this fall.
The competition so far
Wednesday’s second practice of the team’s three-day minicamp had Smith running the first offense and Lock the second.
Again.
Through six organized team activities practices and two of them in minicamp this week, Lock has taken some repetitions in group drills with Tyler Lockett and other first-line receivers. But when the offensive linemen join the backs and receivers and in seven-on-seven passing drills against the defensive secondary, it’s been Smith as QB1, Lock as QB2.
Coach Pete Carroll and Waldron have said Smith has the early advantage of familiarity with the offense and teammates, from his three years backing up Wilson.
Waldron goes on about Lock’s “arm talent,” how he can make every throw in the offense and against any defense.
In offseason practices this spring, Lock’s passes — long, short, to the sideline and across the middle — have been pretty. Effortless, almost. He has a smooth throwing motion and deft blend of touch and zip. It’s why Carroll said the Seahawks loved Lock when he was coming out of Missouri in the 2019 draft — a week and a half after the Seahawks had re-signed Wilson to a record $140 million contract extension.
Of course, defenders aren’t charging at Lock trying to make him a lawn dart yet.
Waldron said last week the team will assess later this month how to assign repetitions at quarterback for the preseason, and whether Smith and Lock will eventually alternate on the starting offense. Waldron said those assessments and possible changes from the current Smith one, Lock two will come after offseason workouts are done.
Those practices end June 15.
“Those are just going to be just constant conversations. And as we move forward here finishing up the offseason and getting into training camp, that’s something we will sit down and discuss exactly how we want to balance out reps or to give reps to different guys with different people around,” Waldron said.
Known vs. potential
For the coaches and teammates Seattle’s first quarterback competition in 10 years essentially is the known, in Smith, versus the potential, with Lock.
Carroll, Waldron and the Seahawks know Smith was the New York Jets’ quarterback his first two years in the league, 2013 and ‘14, out of West Virginia. The Seahawks’ decision-makers know how Smith prepared for 2 1/2 years thoroughly and professionally each week as if he was going to start — even though Wilson had yet to miss an in-season practice, let alone a game in his decade leading Seattle.
Then last October Wilson broke bones in a finger on his throwing hand. He missed the first three games of his career.
Smith finished a loss to the Rams in which Wilson got hurt, then made the next three starts. Smith lost at Pittsburgh after fumbling in Seahawks territory early in overtime. He made mistakes that doomed Seattle’s offense in a 13-10 home loss to New Orleans the following week.
Then against Jacksonville Oct. 31 Smith was what the coaches have since said was nearly flawless: 20 for 24 passing for 195 yards and two touchdown throws, to DK Metcalf. The Seahawks’ 31-7 win over the lowly Jaguars was the first start Smith finished as a winner since Dec. 28, 2014, with the Jets.
Smith says he thinks Waldron trusts him from those three starts last October.
“(It’s) Shane’s trust in me to get in and out of plays, to see coverages, understanding our offense and moving guys around, being able to create mismatches,” Smith said.
“I think Shane believes in my ability and my knowledge as a quarterback.”
Lock’s belief
Lock praised Canales and Waldron for how they’ve taught him the playbook.
They just threw it at him on day one.
“Just...,” Lock said.
He pantomimed his coaches handing him a playbook with a shrug.
“Let’s go. Figure this all out.”
That’s gotten him assimilated quickly in Seattle, in just eight offseason practices.
“I feel really, really, really good about this offense,” Lock said. “I feel like I could go out and play a game tomorrow, and succeed. That’s a testament to the coaches in there, and the guys around me. They teach me up on little intricacies of plays that they’ve picked up over time with this offense.
“I appreciate everyone that’s gotten me this far in developing in this offense.”
Lock did this a year ago at this time, competing for a starting job. After two years of injuries and turnovers and two offensive coordinators in Denver, the Broncos signed veteran Teddy Bridgewater. Bridgewater won Denver’s job for 2021.
What did Lock learn from that?
“That was really my first time ever having that happen, last year,” the former phenom in high school and at the University of Missouri said. “I tried to compare the whole time: ‘Did Teddy beat me that day, or did I win that day?’ And overall if you start thinking like that it’s just not good for your mental (approach), it’s not good for your process of becoming a better quarterback.
“It’s not about who won that day. It’s about, did I get better today? Did I make guys around me better? Because if I’m playing at my best, the other 10 dudes around me are going to be playing really good football, too.
“Comparison is the thief of joy, is what (former Missouri head coach) Barry Odom told me one day when I was in college. And that’s kind of stuck with me.”
Lock knows what this competition with Smith is going to come down to: not turning the ball over at the sport’s most important position, as the guy who handles the ball on every play.
“Decision. Timing. Accuracy,” Lock said.
“You know, there’s a lot of football still to be played. The fun part of football still to be played, where it’s 11 on 11, we’re putting pads on. I feel like (then) I’ll get to do the things that make me the quarterback that I am. And that’s being able to run around, make plays. Hang out in the pocket and move in the pocket.
“But ultimately, what I’ve seen in my time in the NFL (it’s going to come down to), one, can you take care of the football?, and two, showing that you can make accurate throws. We’ve got to get these guys the ball. We have too many crazy athletes on this field for me not to get it to where they can catch it and not let the other team get it.”
This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 6:28 PM.
