Geno Smith is experiencing a mixed season with the Seattle Seahawks. In last week’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers, Smith struggled, throwing two interceptions in a 36-24 defeat.
This brings his total for the season to six interceptions, matching the number of touchdown passes he has thrown. This affects the shine of his impressive 1,778 passing yards, which is the best in the league so far.
This isn’t the first time Smith has had a streak of throwing a lot of interceptions since becoming Seattle’s starter. From Weeks 6-9 last season, he threw six interceptions in four games, but he performed well the rest of the year.
The year before, he also had a rough patch with interceptions in the second half of the season and was fortunate not to throw even more.
Despite these ups and downs, the Seahawks must be satisfied with Smith’s performance over the past two and a half seasons. Heading into Week 7, Vinnie Iyer from The Sporting News has Smith ranked 15th among NFL starting quarterbacks.
Regarding Geno Smith’s ranking, TSN stated, “Smith has responded well to a more uptempo and aggressive passing game under former University of Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb. He leads the league with 1,778 passing yards and has room to build back up his efficiency in the new offense.”
In the long run, it can be argued that Smith looks better on film than Brock Purdy (ranked sixth) and Kirk Cousins (ranked 10th).
It also seems that Caleb Williams (ranked 13th) and Sam Darnold (ranked 14th) haven’t done enough recently to be placed above Smith, who has been performing at a high level since early 2022.
While we might advocate for Smith to be ranked as high as 11th, being placed at 15th is reasonable based on his current performance.
If Smith wants to consistently break into the top 10, he’ll need to avoid these periods where he tries to do too much, which reminds us of the difficult early days of his career with the New York Jets, when he threw more interceptions than touchdowns.
More importantly, the Seahawks need to improve protection on Smith’s right side, which has been a problem for too long. While Smith has his own challenges, ongoing issues with pass protection on that side are definitely holding him back.
