Seattle Seahawks: Grading Geno Smith’s unprecedented 2022 season
By Jake Luppino
The future is bright for the Seattle Seahawks. Exceeding all expectations in 2022, the organization has a chance to take another step towards building a championship team with an abundance of cap space and draft picks this offseason. One of the first things they should take care of is bringing back quarterback Geno Smith.
What Geno Smith did in 2022 was an absolute shock to everybody. It is something we’ve never seen before. A 10-year veteran who rode the bench for years, going from team to team, took the league by storm when given his opportunity.
At this time a year ago, it seems that the Seahawks franchise was in flux. Two of the remaining pillars from the 2013 Super Bowl team were gone; Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner. With a 70-year-old (at the time) head coach, multiple draft picks, and no quarterback, truly no one knew what to expect from the Seahawks.
Seattle Seahawks: Geno Smith’s 2022 final grade
Seattle remained true to itself and their competitive philosophy. Acquiring Drew Lock via the Russell Wilson trade, they decided to move forward with a quarterback competition between Drew Lock and Geno Smith. The idea of a quarterback competition between those two was mocked around the league.
Although I wasn’t laughing, I didn’t expect much success for this season regardless of who won the position.
Expectations
When the news broke that Geno Smith would be the starting quarterback entering Week 1, my initial thought was, this is a nice story for Smith. I believed that even more so after the shocking victory over the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football. But, I never truly believed that this Seahawks team would end up as a Wild Card team.
Looking at their schedule, I figured they’d get about 5-to-6 wins – Broncos, Lions, Giants, Jets, Panthers & Cardinals. With the youth of this roster and a quarterback in Geno Smith who no one saw consistent starts in over a decade, I didn’t have high hopes. Quite frankly, even if they did finish with 5 or 6 wins, I still would have seen the season as a success. The consensus surrounding the Seahawks entering the season was that they’d be the worst team in the league. But, boy, just like everyone else, I was wrong.