3 major observations from Geno Smith's performance vs. 49ers in Week 12

DK Metcalf must have the goods on Geno Smith

There was a time not too long ago that DK Metcalf would get between 4 and 8 targets a game and the tight ends would combine for about 7 targets. That simply no longer happens as Geno Smith seems to try to force the ball to DK Metcalf a lot more than he was. I am not bringing up Tyler Lockett's targets here because Lockett deserves the same number of targets as Metcalf.

Between Weeks 1 and 4, Metcalf got 5.7 targets per game. Since then, Metcalf's target rate has jumped to 9.5 targets a game with five of the six games seeing Metcalf targets at least 9 times. Of the 57 targets in the last six games, though, Metcalf has caught just 25 of the passes. He simply isn't finding ways to get open and he does not fight for the ball on deep passes.

In the first four games, Seattle's tight ends were targeted 6.8 times a game. That is still not enough, though, when a team has tight ends who can catch well, and Noah Fant, Will Dissly, and Colby Parkinson can all catch and run a bit. Of the tight ends 27 total targets in the first four games, 22 were completed. But in the last seven games, the tight ends only averaged 5.1 targets per game with 21 of 36 targets being caught.

The Seahawks offense works a lot better when Geno Smith is spreading the ball around and taking what the defense gives him. That used to be including the tight ends more. But now we see the ball forced to a mostly unopen DK Metcalf a lot more. This is clearly intentional by the Seahawks, but it needs to stop and Fant, Parkinson, and Dissly need the ball more.

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