Who’s starting at QB for Seahawks in preseason finale at Dallas, where competition stands
Geno Smith is holding onto the Seahawks’ quarterback job — through the start of the final preseason game.
Coach Pete Carroll said Thursday the 31-year-old Smith will do in Dallas Friday what he’s done in Seattle’s first two exhibition games this month: start it.
“Geno has been the number-one guy the whole time, and he’s held onto that,” Carroll said before the Seahawks flew to Texas for Friday night’s preseason finale in Arlington. “He’s going to start here in the last preseason game.
“Somebody asked me the other night, ‘Is that important?’ Yeah. Yeah, it is.”
Carroll again said Drew Lock will play “a lot” against Dallas. The 25-year-old was acquired in March as part of the Seahawks trading Russell Wilson to Denver to create this situation. Lock alternated with Smith playing with the starting offense in three consecutive practices this week. That’s the first time that’s happened in training camp.
Lock’s only other extensive time with the starting offense was last week, when he was the clear number one and Smith the number two in practice.
Later that day, the team announced Lock had tested positive for COVID-19. That knocked him out of his scheduled start last week in Seattle’s second preseason game, against Chicago.
That changed Carroll’s timeline on deciding this quarterback derby. The coach has said he may now use the next two weeks of practices between Friday’s exhibition and the opener Sept. 12 against Wilson’s Broncos before deciding who starts the game and season for the Seahawks.
So the question for the final preseason game isn’t who starts it. The Seahawks know what they have in Smith. He’s been here for three seasons, as Wilson’s backup. He went 1-2 starting for Wilson last season, when Wilson broke his finger.
The question is: How much will Lock play with the starting offense, and particularly with center Austin Blythe and the starting offensive line? If at all?
Carroll wouldn’t answer that question when asked multiple times this week.
Lock’s entire playing time in the preseason consists of the final two quarters Aug. 13 at Pittsburgh exclusively with Seattle’s second-team offense. He threw two touchdown passes to tie and re-tie the game. In the final minutes he failed to adjust before the snap to a Steelers linebacker showing an obvious blitz off his back side. Lock got sacked and lost a fumble on the play Pittsburgh converted into the winning points in the final seconds.
“I’m hoping he has a great game. He’s going to get a lot of play time and get real comfortable out there,” Carroll said of Lock for Friday. “It’s really unfortunate the rhythm didn’t get to happen like we wanted it to, with last week. So we’ve got to make up a little bit of time and make sure that he gets his reps.
“And we’ll see what happens.”
The coach said he’s not concerned with the fact that Lock has not taken a game snap with Blythe, Seattle’s overdue upgrade at center in free agency this spring. And Carroll said “that’s not necessarily what will happen” Friday at Dallas, either.
Carroll says Lock has gotten enough time to mesh on pre-snap read and protection calls with Blythe in practices.
“Austin does really a professional job,” Carroll said.
“There’s no problem with that. Blythe makes it easy on him. He’s in total command.”
This story was originally published August 25, 2022 at 12:23 PM.
