Seahawks’ Geno Smith wins NFC offensive player of the week—just like everyone planned it
It’s been 10 seasons, four teams and a massive Seahawks trade and redirection since Geno Smith’s been this good.
The NFL announced Wednesday Smith as the NFC offensive player of the week. That is for his 20-for-32, 320-yard, three-total-touchdown game in Seattle’s 48-45 shootout victory at the Detroit Lions Sunday.
The only other time Smith, who turns 32 next week, has won conference player of the week was in early October 2013. That was when he won the AFC honor one month into his rookie season with the New York Jets.
Two weeks ago after Seattle’s dismal, 27-7 loss at San Francisco when Smith was dumping off short passes and the Seahawks had gone six quarters without scoring an offensive touchdown, some were asking when Drew Lock was going to replace him.
Now, through four weeks of this season, Smith is out-playing and has beaten head to head Russell Wilson, the starter Smith backed up the previous three seasons with the Seahawks. That was until Seattle traded Wilson to Denver in March and decided on Smith over former Broncos starter Lock to be the Seahawks’ number-one quarterback to begin the 2022 season.
Smith has a season completion rate of 77.3%. That’s the highest in league history for a starting QB through four games. The last two weeks, he’s gone from throwing the shortest passes in the NFL to the longest, and is still connecting at a rate better than Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes — all others.
For the season Smith in NFL rankings is:
- first in completion percentage (hitting on 102 of his 132 throws)
- fourth in yards per attempt (7.9)
- sixth in touchdown passes to interception ratio (six to two)
- third in passer rating (108)
Smith is the only player in the league with a completion rate of at least 75%, at least 1,000 yards passing and at least five touchdown throws so far this season.
“It really worked out great,” coach Pete Carroll said Monday of choosing Smith over Lock to replace Wilson.
“I’m so proud of his start and fired up for him.”
Smith has been particularly lethal against defenses that choose man-to-man coverage and blitzing, as Detroit did to disastrous results last weekend. Against man coverage, Smith has completed 21 of 31 passes for 292 yards, four touchdowns, zero interceptions and a passer rating of 137.4. That is the best in the NFL against man to man.
The Seahawks are 2-2, as each of the three other teams in the NFC West, entering Seattle’s game at New Orleans (1-3) Sunday.
All this for his first month as a full-time starting quarterback in eight years, since his second and final one leading the Jets. He’s been a backup for both New York teams, the Chargers and the Seahawks before this season.
Yet Smith says this isn’t more than he expected he’d be replacing Wilson.
“No, I can play better,” Smith said. “I have not exceeded my expectations.
“I can play a lot better.”
This story was originally published October 5, 2022 at 10:22 AM.
