The Seattle Seahawks are 3-2 to start their season. Let me ask you this question.

When this schedule first came out, and you looked at Seattle facing the Rams at home (a team that always has their number), the Lions on the road (a team many think is a contender), the Panthers at home (a team that beat Seattle at Lumen Field last year), the Giants on the road (a playoff team last year), and the Bengals on the road (serious contender), would you have taken 3-2 through this initial five came stretch?

I know I would have. 3-2 is pretty much what I was hoping for, but to listen to some fans and read a few articles out there now, you would think this team is 1-4, and it’s largely Geno Smith’s fault.. weirdly.

Here are all my thoughts about Geno Smith as it pertains to this team and fanbase. I am going to keep this as hyperbolic and drama free as I possibly can.

I think Geno is an extremely well liked guy within the Seattle Seahawk organization, but I don’t believe that is the reason why he was chosen over a year ago to be the starter over Drew Lock. I think he had the players and coaches trust in him more than the other guy. I think, through OTAs, training camp, and preseason games, he showed a better command of the offense and the playbook, made better decisions, and was more accurate with the football. Therefore, I think he earned his status of QB1.

Now, I don’t think the NFL is a popularity contest to which over 50 guys in a locker room want a guy at quarterback who’s got the better personality. I think they want the guy who they believe will give them the best chance at winning games when they step out onto the field, and put their lives on the line for our entertainment.

If the majority of the locker room felt like Drew Lock would give them the best shot at winning games, he would have been made the starter over Geno Smith last year. This is the long and short of how it stood with the quarterbacks last year, and I highly doubt much has changed this year.

This is Geno Smith’s team. This is his locker room.

He has the respect of the players, and he has trust from the coaches. If he didn’t, Drew Lock would be the starter. It is that cut and dried, and it should be obvious to anyone who follows this team closely.

So, having said all of that, it is beyond weird to me how many fans (maybe fueled by a prominent online fan page writer or two) are all pointing their fingers at him, and are pining to give Drew Lock a chance. It would seem that they know more about infinitely more football than the Seahawks locker room, and Seahawk coaching staff.

Through five games, Geno had a couple rough ones, a couple great ones, and he played good enough to help beat the Giants on the road. A month ago, he was named FedEx Passer Of the Week. Through these five games, he has also been playing largely without his starting tackles, and there was a spell when he had 4/5s of his starting offensive line out of the game.

You can point to whatever advanced metrics that you want to about whatever slump you feel like he’s having. Go for it. He’s been completing nearly 70% of his passes while playing in a scheme that had to adjust itself to compensate for the loss of talent on the offensive line, and yet up until the Bengals game, he was Pro Football Network’s 8th best quarterback last week in their NFL QB power rankings.

Also, when Seattle mustered through a three game win streak, many folks were praising offensive coordinator Shane Waldron for adjusting this scheme to fit the lack of talent on the offensive line by going extra tight ends, and a lot of play action out of heavy looks to which Geno Smith was looking pretty good working out of. So, after this tough loss to the Bengals, why are there not more people criticizing Waldron for going away from those designs in favor of more funky spread and empty backfield stuff against a defense that had a pretty strong secondary?

Is it because it’s easier to dump on a quarterback who you were never really bought into in the first place?

Maybe.

Instead talking about Waldron’s game plan against the Bengals on Monday, we get articles like the one Matt Calkins wrote for The Seattle Times that focuses on Geno not playing as good in December of last year as he did in October after a tough loss on the road against a very good Bengals team in which he threw two picks. We also have Kenneth Arthur (formerly from Fieldgulls and writing his own daily Seahawks newsletter), who has been staunchly anti Geno Smith all along, proclaiming that Geno should be benched Drew Lock now for reasons that make my brain hurt reading.

I will say this about Geno in regards to how he is seen by the fan base and writers of this team. I think there are many who like him, appreciate his story, and they recognize him as a good quarterback capable of winning games, and they enjoy rooting for him. I think there is also a section of fans and media who have been hanging onto negative beliefs about him, and they are resistant to heap too much praise on him after he plays a good game, and they are equally too quick to dump shit on him after a game in which he isn’t perfect (see Arthur’s Seaside Joe newsletter daily).

Personally, I think the latter is kind of a crappy look. I think some of what fuels this bad look is that, for some folks who spend an exorbitant amount of time obsessing about this team, tweeting about them, writing about them, podcasting about them, there is a lot of ego inside many of these individuals, and sometimes the need to be right about a prior belief trumps the need to see a player succeed. I think another thing that fuels it is an unyielding (agist) belief that Geno Smith cannot possibly be a longer termed solution to Seattle’s quarterback situation, and that guy is either in next year’s draft class, or maybe it’s Drew Lock and Pete Carroll doesn’t know what he’s doing.

I can understand the logic in thinking that Seattle needs to draft and develop its next franchise quarterback. I just wrote about my huge infatuation over Michael Penix Junior and how I believe he could be a fantastic fit for this offense. While I don’t believe 33 is that old for an NFL quarterback in today’s game, I think in a couple years, it is going to be way easier for Seattle to manage their salary cap if they have a talented passer on a rookie contract over an older vet on an expensive one. So, I entirely see the logic of drafting an heir apparent, and I write that being a Geno Smith fan.

But this idea of benching Geno Smith now for Drew Lock? Holy crap balls, that sounds totally bonkers, crackers, off your meds, coo coo pants, and I do not get that on any level.

What on Earth do people think is there with Drew Lock?

Sure, he’s six years younger, and maybe a better athlete, but I haven’t seen anything out of him that leads me to believe he’s got better upside than what they already have with Geno, and I think he floor as a starter is very likely way worse. I think he’s capable of making splashy throws downfield, and some nice plays with his legs, but I think he’s not nearly as good of a processor and he’s more likely to put the ball in harm’s way. I do not think he’s nearly as good of a passer.

I also do not think that this is going to happen. Carroll isn’t going to piss away chances to win games to see if he can uncork his backup quarterback’s “upside.” He’s not going to piss off his locker room, either.

Geno Smith isn’t the starting quarterback over Drew Lock because he is the safer choice. He’s the starting quarterback because he is the better quarterback.

Now, if Geno Smith goes out against the Cardinals this Sunday at Lumen Field, and truly stinks up the joint when his blocking was good, and he had plenty of time to throw, and Shane Waldron called a good game plan, and the ground game was good, then maybe just maybe discussions about Lock could earn better merit. I don’t think that’s going to happen, however. I suspect we are going to get a good enough game out of Geno, and a Seattle win.

I will also say this. I think if you are a white dude openly pining away for Drew Lock over Geno Smith after five games into this season, that’s a bad look, buddy. That makes you look like a racist.

Yup! I’m getting that one out of the way.

Doesn’t matter whether you think you aren’t, and you can argue until the cows come home that you’re not, but it looks pretty racist advocating for a white turnover machine quarterback to replace the black dude who just won Comeback Player Of The Year last year. You can slice that, and dice that any which way you want to with all your reasoning, but I’m telling you now, it’s just going to make you look all the more racist in the process. So, there’s that.

My simple solution to all of this right now is to chill out on Geno Smith. Just lay off of him, his age, his salary, and his status as QB1 for the Seattle Seahawks. Let the season play out.

If he badly regresses and is eventually replaced by Lock, he won’t be here next year. If he provides a steadiness to the quarterback position that leads them to another winning season, then there’s a good chance he will stick around, even if the draft a quarterback next Spring.

As for now, I just want to root for my Seahawks without seeing or hearing the ridiculous noise of benching Geno Smith. Who knows if I will get that peaceful snow globe existence as a Twelve. Probably not. There’s too many freaks out there.

Go Hawks.