4 things we learned from the Seahawks Week 4 shootout
By Matthew Holm
Seahawks QB Geno Smith has been an absolute ringer.
When you think of the top quarterbacks in the league, you generally think of guys who can push the ball down the field, who can drop the ball into a 5-gallon bucket from 50 yards out — your Pat Mahomeses, your Aaron Rodgerses, and your Russell Wilsons.
But there’s another category that’s been largely forgotten in recent years, and those are the “cerebral assassins,” to borrow a pro wrestling term. Guys like Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Peyton Manning, who don’t necessarily push the ball down the field, but just don’t miss.
Is it foolish to put Geno Smith in that camp? With just an 8-game sample size in the last 5 years, absolutely. But what is undeniable to this point is that Geno Smith has been the most accurate QB in football to open up the year. He currently leads the NFL in completion percentage, and that stat is no longer being propped up by a bunch of short, easy throws. He’s been slinging it all over the field.
This last week, he delivered one of the all-time great performances by a Seahawks QB, throwing for 320 yards with remarkable efficiency, a passer rating north of 130, and completing at least one pass to eight different receivers.
Additionally, he’s made a lot of noise in the running game, racking up 49 yards on the ground last week and checking into the draw play that Rashaad Penny housed from 41 yards out when he saw the blitz package Detroit was bringing.
The Lions’ defense is nothing to write home about, but Smith ripped them up with greater abandon than any other QB to this point, and at this rate, he just might talk John Schneider out of drafting a QB with one of Seattle’s first-round picks next April.