Three reasons the Seahawks don't need Lamar Jackson

Seahawks QB Geno Smith vs Lamar Jackson by the numbers

Let's look at the numbers of these two players. Normally I'd play a little guessing game here with their stats, but it's extremely obvious which numbers pair with which player. So let's jump in, shall we?

That's not exactly a big win for Lamar Jackson, is it? Yes, Jackson missed four games, so that depresses his cumulative stats. Looking at the per-game numbers, Smith still has the edge. Geno leads in passing yardage, 252 to 187. He leads in TDs, 1.76 to 1.42. Even the INTs look better for Geno; while he still trails Lamar, his .65 picks per game are closer to Lamar's .58 than the raw numbers would have you believe. As for accuracy, Jackson is quite accurate. Last season he was on target with 75.4 percent of his passes. Smith was better though, hitting his receivers 78.8 percent of the time. All stats are from the fine folks at pro-football-reference.com, just so you know I'm not making this up in a pro-Geno fever dream.

Don't worry, I didn't forget all those rushing yards Jackson piles up. Like I said, he's a dynamic player; I'm not disputing that for one moment. But were yards on the ground really that much more valuable than the yards he didn't pass for? Jackson ran for 764 yards and three TDs last year. Smith countered with 366 yards and one score. That puts Jackson ahead by 398 yards and a pair of touchdowns. But Smith bested Jackson through the air by 2,040 yards and 13 scores. Yes, Lamar Jackson is a dynamic two-way threat, but not enough to make up for a net loss of 1,642 yards of offense and 11 touchdowns. Thanks, but I'll take Geno Smith's production.