Seahawks news for Wednesday: COVID just gave Geno Smith the QB1 job

The Seahawks already appeared on the verge of making Geno Smith QB1 for Week 1 but now that Drew Lock has COVID, the deal is pretty much sealed.

The Seahawks clearly trust Geno Smith more than they do Drew Lock. And this was the case prior to the news from Tuesday that Drew Lock had tested positive for COVID and will therefore miss the second preseason game. Smith was taking most of the QB1 reps in practice and played the entire first half of the first preseason game.

But for Lock to have any chance of being the starting quarterback to start the season, he would have had to play well against the Bears this Thursday and then played well again in preseason game 3 against the Dallas Cowboys.

But now Geno Smith will likely play the entire first half again and possibly into the second half. Or the Seahawks could just give the ball to Jacob Eason to start the second half to see if he is worthy of having Seattle consider keeping three quarterbacks on the roster this season.

Seahawks might as well name Geno Smith the Week 1 starter at QB

My guess is Eason will probably play a lot against the Bears but he will still find his way to the practice squad once the season starts and not the active roster.

The worst part for Lock is that before his text for COVID came back positive, head coach Pete Carroll had named him as the starter for Thursday’s game. While the trust factor likely remained in Smith’s favor over Lock, especially after Lock didn’t pick up a blitz near the end of the first preseason game and was sacked and fumbled, at least the Seahawks wanted to see what Lock could do with the first-team offense against another team.

But with Smith getting more important reps, Lock is losing a chance to show what he can do against a first-team defense and also missing out on valuable reps. If Smith plays decently (meaning, he looks in control of the offense and doesn’t turn the ball over), then QB1 is going to be Smith’s spot.

In fact, if Smith does play well, he might as well be kept out of the final preseason game simply so Seattle doesn’t risk him to injury. Maybe if Lock does fantastically against the Cowboys on August 26th, there’s a slight chance he is the Week 1 starter but that seems extremely unlikely right now.