Geno Smith active to play but Drew Lock starts for Seahawks vs Eagles. Riq Woolen benched
Geno Smith was active to play — yet nowhere to be found as the game began.
Drew Lock started at quarterback for the Seahawks Monday night against the Philadelphia Eagles, after Smith surprised Seattle’s coaches and trainers with how well he got through an early pregame workout on his injured groin.
Smith was on the sideline wearing a coat, knit cap and headset as Lock took the field with the Seahawks offense trailing 7-0 with 6 minutes left in the first quarter. That was after Philadelphia’s 15-play drive to Jalen Hurts’ touchdown run on third and goal to begin the game.
Smith tested his strained groin that kept him out of Seattle’s 28-16 loss last week at San Francisco. He took the field in sweatpants and sweatshirt about two hours before kickoff at Lumen Field. That workout convinced the Seahawks he was OK to at least be active for the game if not start.
Lock took almost equal reps early pregame and was ready to start if Smith could not.
Seahawks general manager John Schneider on the team’s radio pregame show “Geno came out tonight and really surprised in his pregame workout.”
He said Smith aggravated his injury in practice this past week.
“We’ve got 54 minutes here to figure out what’s going on,” the GM said before kickoff on who was starting for Seattle.
Lock was out taking snaps from starting center Evan Brown as the Seahawks began full pregame warmups. Lock ended pregame running the first-team offense.
The only other quarterback in full uniform on the field for Seattle for pregame warmups was practice-squad call-up Sean Mannion. He was the third quarterback active for the game.
Rookie defensive back Devon Witherspoon (hip pointer) and safety Jamal Adams (knee) are inactive for Seattle.
On the other end of the field, Hurts prepared to start, as usual, for the Eagles, though a weekend illness had him questionable to play. The Pro Bowl quarterback flew separately from his team from Philadelphia to Seattle Sunday.
Adams missing with knee pain he’s been playing through since his season debut Oct. 2 from 13 months of recovery from a torn quadriceps tendon meant the Seahawks were started in nickel defense with three cornerbacks. That’s instead of the three safeties they played with Adams, Julian Love and Quandre Diggs most of the previous game at San Francisco, after Witherspoon got hurt in the first half.
Tre Brown started for Witherspoon at nickel. Veteran backup Artie Burns started at left cornerback. Michael Jackson started at right cornerback for benched Riq Woolen. Woolen was watching the first defensive series wearing a long, blue team cape over his full uniform.
Woolen entered at right cornerback for the first time for the first scrimmage play of the second quarter.
Brown returned after missing last week’s game with a heel injury.
Coach Pete Carroll uncharacteristically called out Woolen and Adams for not executing plays as coached that became huge plays for the 49ers last week. Carroll has been particularly unhappy with Woolen, his 2022 rookie Pro Bowl cornerback, for his tackling and missing coverage assignments.
Seattle’s other inactive players were wide receiver Dee Eskridge, running back Kenny McIntosh, defensive end Myles Adams and offensive linemen McClendon Curtis and Raiqwon O’Neal.
The Eagles left former Seahawks running back and first-round draft choice Rashaad Penny inactive for the game.
This story was originally published December 18, 2023 at 5:35 PM.
