What we learned from the Seahawks barn-burner loss at New Orleans

It’s officially time to admit it — Geno Smith is for real.

I’ve been talking about this for the last month and a half now, and I think we’ve finally reached a proper sample size for Geno to conclude that not only was he the correct choice for Seattle to start, he might be one of the better quarterbacks in all of football.

I broke down Geno’s statistical dominance late last week, and he only added to it on Sunday, notching a second consecutive game with a passer rating north of 130, this time on the road against a highly-touted, veteran defense. I’ve noted previously that we had yet to see Smith make the kinds of throws that franchise QBs make. Those throws were present and accounted for against one of the best defenses the Seahawks will face all year.

Geno dropped two in the bucket to Tyler Lockett in some tight, tight windows and threw another couple of darts to DK Metcalf, one of which would have been a touchdown had it not been dropped. He looks every bit the part of a highly competent starting quarterback and has now made every throw one might expect a first-round draft pick to make.

For those familiar with Smith’s college work at West Virginia a decade ago, that should come as no surprise — he drew a lot of talk as a potential first-round QB, though his background in spread offenses ultimately dropped his draft stock. That said, a decade removed from the expectations that he could upgrade the Jets’ offense after Mark Sanchez flamed out, he looks the part.