The Seattle Seahawks have two games left in their regular season. If they defeat the Chicago Bears in Week 17, the team also needs the Arizona Cardinals to beat the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday. Otherwise, Week 18 becomes meaningless for Seattle.
This means we might be very close to Seattle needing to do a deep-dive into how to make 2025 better. Should Seattle go 9-8, which is realistic with a win against Chicago and another loss to the Rams, it would be the third straight season of that mediocre record. The only way out of that cycle is to make changes.
Still, 9-8 shows the team isn't terrible, but also not very good. A wrong move could make the team far worse. Does the team move on from quarterback Geno Smith, for instance, and save $25 million? Those are some of the tough decisions Seattle has to make. But here are some overreactions from the season so far.
Three overreactions about the Seattle Seahawks through Week 16
Geno Smith is a bad quarterback
There would be some people who disliked Geno Smith even if he led the league in completion percentage, fourth quarter comebacks, and game-winning drives, and the team had a winning record while he was QB1. Oh, wait. All that has happened. The truth is that bad quarterbacks do not do those things, and Smith is not a bad quarterback. He isn't a great one either.
Smith's ability has the Seahawks in a tough spot. He is good enough to deliver some wins but also makes critical and crippling mistakes in the red zone. Seattle should have beaten the Los Angeles Rams in Week 9 except for Smith's two horrible interceptions. The quarterback has thrown 15 interceptions in 2024, and a quarter of those have been once Seattle was inside the other team's 20-yard line.
There are two issues that have also caused Smith to not have his best season. One is that he does hold on to the ball too long and takes sacks when he shouldn't, such as the one in the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Vikings. The sack pushed Seattle out of true field goal range (Jason Myers missed a desperation 60-yard attempt).
The other problem is that DK Metcalf has caused three of Smith's interceptions by poor route-running. He doesn't seem to cut his routes off sharply enough or he doesn't finish them. This was the case with Smith's final pick on Seattle's last drive against Minnesota.
Ryan Grubb was a bad hire
Grubb knows how to scheme receivers open down the field, and create explosive plays. His issue is that his offense becomes limited if the offensive line is bad, and such is the case with the Seahawks. At the University of Washington in 2023, Grubb's line was the best in college football. The elite blocking allowed time for receivers to develop routes and get open deep.
Every offensive coordinator would be limited if their line was bad. Great offensive coordinators can scheme around that issue, but the offense would still be far from perfectly efficient. While Grubb is not a bad offensive coordinator, he also does not appear to be a great one and the offensive line play might put his job in jeopardy after the season.
Ernest Jones has helped change the defense long-term
Jones is better against the run than Jerome Baker and Tyrel Dodson were, but he still is not a transformative player. He looked better during Seattle's four-game win streak when the overall defense was better, but when the defense struggles, Jones is unable to do anything that greatly helps the situation.
In his first four games after being traded to Seattle from the Tennessee Titans, the linebacker missed zero tackles. In the last four games, he has missed six total. He has also allowed 14 completions on 17 targets over the last three games for 147 yards and a touchdown. Jones might be nice to keep around after this season, but he certainly is not the must-sign in free agency that some believe.