Why Seattle Seahawks Should Start Drew Lock Over Geno Smith

Simply put, the Seattle Seahawks should start Drew Lock over Geno Smith entering the 2022 season.

Despite missing the Seahawks’ second preseason game versus the Chicago Bears — a game in which Lock was due to start before testing positive for COVID-19 — Lock’s stock rose in the quarterback competition due to Smith’s abysmal performance.

In Seattle’s ugly 27-11 loss to Chicago, Smith led zero scoring drives — Jason Myers missed a 47-yard field goal — and went 10-of-18 for 112 yards and no touchdowns.

Yes, it’s true that it was one preseason game. But it also followed the preseason opener in which Lock outperformed Smith just after the former had outplayed the latter in a mock scrimmage game.

It’s clear that head coach Pete Carroll is giving Lock every opportunity to win the starting job. Unfortunately, Smith hasn’t done anything terrible to actually lose his hold on the job. It’s a stranglehold on the job that Smith currently holds due to his seniority on the roster, having joined the Seahawks back in 2019.

The bottom line is this — Lock is more dynamic and can actually move the ball down the field with his arm. Smith is better at taking care of the football, but he won’t win any games for you when forced to score. There’s a reason he hasn’t served as a full-time starter since the 2014 season.

Fox Sports draft analyst Rob Rang explains that’s the very reason why Smith still has the inside track on the starting QB job despite Lock outperforming him in the preseason.

“With Geno, you know what you’re going to get, so it’s easier to game plan,” Rang said. “It’s easier to anticipate what the score is going to be, so you can better prepare yourself for what your opponent might do. Geno Smith and his experience can be a little bit of a security blanket for Pete Carroll.”

Regardless of who the Seahawks opt to go with as their starting quarterback, they’ll be one of the worst teams in the league. Seattle is obviously setting itself up to select high in the 2023 NFL draft, where the quarterback class will be deep with elite prospects such as Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud.

But you might as well see what you may potentially have in Lock while you have the chance to. In Smith, you already know what you have — a career backup who is only in contention to start due to his experience in the system. The 31-year-old Smith went 1-2 as the Seahawks’ starting quarterback last season as the offense averaged just 20.3 points per game in his starts. By comparison, Seattle averaged 23.8 points per game in Russell Wilson’s starts.

After all, Lock’s potential was a big reason why the Seahawks had him included in the Wilson trade.

“When Drew came out of college — we made our assessments and evaluated him [for] the draft — we saw him as a big, strong-armed, mobile, aggressive, athletic quarterback,” Carroll said back in March. “He had thrown a ton of footballs. He had a very aggressive program where you got to see him do everything … and we really liked what we saw. We can still see that. We see that right now when we watch the film.”

However, Carroll stressed that Lock needs to cut down on his turnovers.

“Unfortunately for him, his play has come about where there’s a lot of turnovers in his game,” Carroll said. “That just doesn’t fit with us. We just have to fix that. We have to change the mentality and do the things that we can do to help him be his best.”

Lock did have a costly turnover at the end of the preseason opener versus the Pittsburgh Steelers that eventually led to the Steelers’ game-winning touchdown. However, outside of that fumble, Lock had a near-perfect performance, going 11-for-15 for 102 yards, two touchdowns and a 131.1 quarterback rating.

“I think that Geno Smith wins the job, but I still believe that Drew Lock is the more talented quarterback,” Rang said. “The critical error that led to the sack [in Pittburgh] — losing the ball and losing the game — that’s the kind of stuff that we’ve seen with Drew Lock in Denver.

Lock is clearly the more talented quarterback. But his current bout with COVID-19 may set him back in his quest to win the starting job before the season opener.

The Seahawks will likely go with old reliable — Smith — for the season opener versus the Broncos. But the offense will clearly be stagnant with Smith running the show and Seattle will turn to Lock soon enough.

In Lock, there’s potential. In Smith, there’s mediocrity.

It’s not a hard decision to make, Seattle.