I wonder if Austin Blythe (their center) getting hurt also had anything to do with the collapse. It seemed like he was hurt and replaced by Kyle Fuller shortly before things went south. I can’t remember if Blythe returned at any point. But the fumble that was the start of the wheels coming off the bus was from a strip sack, and perhaps the protection just wasn’t there like it was earlier in the game.
A lot of things went wrong from there, so it’s hard to say if any one thing was the problem. The way I see it, the 49ers were a more loaded team and Seattle needed to be close to perfect to beat them. And for a while, they were pretty close to perfect. They didn’t even have a penalty for the first half of the game. Once that cracked, bad things followed. Still, they made it tough for the majority of the game and you can’t be too disappointed in how things went for a team that everyone wrote off as one of the worst before the season started.
One more posting in this thread before a new one (hopefully) is started for the Divisional Weekend.
The NFL instituted the third wildcard team in 2020, so this year marks the third season that there have been seven playoff teams in each conference. In that span, that third WC team, the #7 seed, is 0-6, with the average margin of victory being 12.2 points. Not exactly captivating playoff football.
That’s a little unfair. This year, Seattle played toe to toe with the Niners until a few minutes before the 4th quarter. The Miami game came down to the very end. Yes, both 7 seeds ultimately lost, but those were two great games.
Granted, the Bills/Fins game was a nail-biter till the end. But claiming that the Niners 18-point victory that was close for three quarters was a ‘great game’ is a bit of a stretch.
Buffalo’s 3-point win over Miami matched the Bills 3-point win over the 7-seeded Colts two years ago. The other four games have been decided by at least 12 points.
As a Niner fan, I might be biased. A close game through three quarters followed by a stomping in the final quarter is kind of the best of both worlds for me.
Actually, I had no dog in that hunt. I really didn’t care who won or lost, although I certainly thought that the Niners were the better team. And I think they proved it.
I hope someone else. Smith did better than anyone expected but was far from stellar. He missed open receivers, he got sacked more than he should, and relied too much on short passes. It worked this year, but it’s not worth $30 million for next year (which is what they’re saying it will take to keep him). It’s time for “thank you for your service and good luck.”
My prediction is that he’ll still be around. I think the only question is whether it will be via franchise tag or a contract. Letting him go would be difficult.
I think it also somewhat depends on what happens in the draft, but I can’t see Seattle drafting a QB at the #5 pick and putting all of their hopes on him. If anything, they’d find a way to keep Geno for another year and let the new guy compete as they did when they drafted Russell.
That’s about what a franchise tag would cost. If that $30 million is the difference between being a competitive team and racing for the highest draft pick in 2024, it’s worth it.
Thanks for the responses. I was surprised at how well Smith performed at times this year, but ‘far from stellar’ seems to be an apt description. Gotta remember that he’s 32 years old. Heck, he played at West Virginia when WVU was still a member of the Big East.
I expect that Seattle will have to decide between a longer contract with a smaller up-front cost that they can spread out a little, or a bigger short-term cost that only lasts a year.
Because of his age and the fact that he doesn’t have a long career showing consistent great play, I have trouble seeing them sign him for a long-term contract. But I also don’t see how they move on from him, there’s not much to replace him.
Unless, again, they just fall in love with someone in the draft, but that’s so risky, and I can’t imagine them doing that. That seems unlike something that Pete and John would do.
He’s better than nothing but he currently has a contract with the Raiders that extends through 2025. He has cap hits much higher than what Seattle would likely pay to have Geno next year. So they’d have a choice between keeping Geno for another year, or trading for Carr and paying him even more and having him for years. I have no idea why they’d do that. Geno’s stats were much higher last year in every single category. The only reason I could see them getting Carr is if they thought they could make him work better in Seattle than he did in Vegas, and he could work as a potential franchise QB.
He’s a talented QB who does poorly under pressure and has bad footwork and throwing mechanics. He’s the kind of guy that will give you some flashy plays and then completely screw up and cost you the game. He’s “exciting” in many of the wrong ways. He’s the “hold my beer” QB option.
Geno’s biggest problems seemed to involve a lack of maturity. He was an arrogant hotshot QB who fell out of the first round of the draft due to his antics during the draft process. He lost his starting job after his jaw was broken in a fight with a fellow player over a $600 debt. He was a backup QB for years after that. By the time Seattle put him in as a starter, he had clearly changed, and has shown poise and leadership, the sorts of things he never had as a new player.
Drew Lock has issues with his mechanics. Here’s an article from last year about a comparison between Geno and Drew.
That article of course downplays Geno a lot because it doesn’t have the advantage of seeing what he was able to do in 2022. But it still has this caution about Drew:
“We know what we have in Geno, we should see what Lock has!” has been a common refrain on this site and among other Seahawks fans. And again, I understand the thought process! Just in Seattle we’ve got three preseasons of Geno and three regular season starts, whereas Lock has been with backups in his limited time here.
Seattle’s coaching staff most likely knows what the Broncos already knew: Lock is not an NFL caliber starting quarterback and probably never will be. That’s the real reason he has seldom worked with the starters this entire camp and into preseason. There is no mystery to be had here. What you’ve seen of him in Denver and briefly in Seattle probably is as good as it gets.
Drew has been in the league since 2015. I don’t think you can fundamentally change his play enough to make him viable. He’s a spare tire that can probably get you through a tight spot if necessary, but not someone you want to ride on for any length of time.
I’m pretty much on Team Defense, which is to say I want the Seahawks to invest heavily, including that #5 overall pick, on defense. But if Anderson and Carter are already gone, I wouldn’t be too sad to see them pick the best QB left at that point.
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