Seahawks’ Geno Smith: ‘Unnecessary’ Giants tackle that hurt knee banned by rugby, so...
Geno Smith is back from an injury he believes shouldn’t have happened.
He’ll play on — not fully healed.
“It’s progressively gotten better every day,” Seattle’s quarterback said after practicing fully again in black high-top cleats — instead of his usual white — Thursday. “And I assume that’ll continue.”
The inference: It’s not 100%
But it’s good enough. Coming off a needed bye and rest, Smith will start Sunday when his Seahawks (3-1) play at the Cincinnati Bengals (2-3).
Smith injured his right knee and, he said, his ankle Oct. 2 when the New York Giants’ Isaiah Simmons pulled down onto the back of his legs at the sideline. That was in the second quarter of Seattle’s 24-3 win.
Smith missed two series at the end of the first half. Drew Lock played for him and led a Seahawks touchdown drive.
Smith returned for the start of the second half and played until 3:30 left in the blowout. Lock finished that night in a mop-up role.
Thursday, Lock did not practice with a new ankle injury. It was Smith and undrafted rookie Holton Ahlers off the practice squad as the two quarterbacks fully participating.
So Ahlers, who was at East Carolina this time last year, is the Seahawks’ only 100%-healthy QB.
If it’s bad for rugby...
Smith said before practice Thursday when Simmons came down on the back on his legs and he felt pain shoot into his ankle and knee, he feared he had a serious injury.
“I did. I did,” Smith said. “I’m just thankful I was able to come out of that without any major injury.”
Smith caught his own batted pass in the Seahawks’ last game and ran toward the Giants’ sideline Oct. 2. Simmons ran over, grabbed Smith by the back of the QB’s shoulders and pads and pulled down onto the back of Smith’s legs for the tackle through the sideline boundary.
Smith was angry. He got up, limped to the middle of the field and charged at the Giants’ defensive huddle.
Smith stayed angry upon his return in the third quarter. He got an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty and an NFL fine of $10,927 for taunting and yelling. That was immediately after the Seahawks felt the Giants swung Seattle wide receiver Tyler Lockett unnecessarily into the sideline.
Smith stayed mad immediately after the game. He told ESPN’s Lisa Salters of Simmons’ tackle: “A dirty play. Dirty play. You guys can see it. It was a dirty play. It’s no place in this sport for that and hopefully something happens.”
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said after the game and again this week Simmons’ action onto the back of Smith’s legs was similar to why the NFL made the horse-collar tackle illegal years ago.
But by the letter of league law, Simmons’ tackle on Smith was not a horse-collar tackle.
Article 16 of the NFL rule book states “no player shall grab the inside collar of the back or the side of the shoulder pads or jersey, or grab the jersey at the name plate or above, and pull the runner toward the ground.”
Simmons did not grab the inside collar of the back or side of Smith’s shoulder pads or jersey. But his pulling of Smith down toward the ground through the back of his legs had a result similar to the horse-collar tackle the league wants out of the game.
Monday, after a week of Smith healing, Carroll said he heard from the league about Simmons’ tackle.
“Yeah, I did,” Carroll said. “It’s a tackling situation that was scrutinized heavily last year. Then, we heard a lot of opposition from the players side of it and all about that tackle that occurred, and we did not act on it as a league.”
Carroll has been consistent in saying since the game he didn’t see the tackle as late out of bounds. Simmons began his tackle while Smith was running in the field of play, before the quarterback was at the sideline boundary.
Smith feels the NFL should outlaw the type of tackle Simmons made on him, whether or not he grabbed the collar of his jersey or shoulder pads.
“I know it’s a tough game and a lot going on out there. What I will say is that style of tackle is banned by rugby,” Smith said Thursday.
“There’s been a lot of cases where that’s caused injures, and I think, in my opinion, was unnecessary on the sidelines, out of bounds.
“They didn’t think so. So who cares what I’ve got to say?”
Shane Waldron: No limitations
Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron said once Smith and the team doctors became assured he was fine to return to the game with no risk of further injury, the play caller did not change his game plan for the second half of the Giants game.
The inference is Smith, with 13 days’ rest, will be running Waldron’s full playbook Sunday in Cincinnati.
“He came back in to be able to operate and function at a normal level,” Waldron said. “(I) talked to him and, ‘Hey, what do you like? Is there anything you don’t feel good or comfortable with running right now?’ You know, he felt comfortable with everything there.
“And so trusting him and trusting his opinion of where he is physically, because he’s the only one that really knows. He still looked fine rolling out and running the bootlegs and the keeper game right there, so felt good when he was hurting and grinding through the rest of that game.”
This story was originally published October 13, 2023 at 5:01 AM.
