Drew Lock might be a really cool person, and he seems like a likable enough guy. He might even have some talent that could make one believe that he could be a quality NFL quarterback someday, maybe.

He’s tall, he moves quickly, he’s got a big arm that can easily fling the ball downfield. He’s the person that you look at with all the ideal measurables where you could convince yourself that “this is what an NFL quarterback should look like.”

Here is something that I feel very certain about Drew Lock as it stands right now. Drew Lock is not a good quarterback. He’s bad. I’m not sure he’s even he’s a decent backup, and I was sorta surprised when Seattle brought him back on a one year $4 million deal to backup Geno Smith again this year. I kinda thought, if he came back again, it would be for a lot less, and kinda in the $1 million dollar range Seattle paid Geno yearly when he was the backup for Russell Wilson.

But Seattle must really like Drew Lock to be paying him this exorbitant amount to enter into the second half of the game to take the place of injured Geno Smith, and throw two completions on six attempts for a grand total of three yards and a dumb interception. They must really believe the sun shines brightly out of his buttocks ripe with potential.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing personal against Drew Lock, and if he has to take over for Geno for a few games, I will root hard for him. I just do not believe he’s very good, and I will never, for the life of me, understand the demographic of Seattle fans who believe he’s more talented and has more upside that Geno Smith does. He does not.

You know how I know this?

Two years ago, when the Seahawks were playing the Rams in LA, and Aaron Donald knocked a struggling Russell Wilson out of the game, one lowly regarded amongst fans Geno Smith stepped in and almost guided Seattle to a win. He played better than Russ that day, in fact.

Two years later, this time around, when Aaron Donald knocks out Geno Smith, Drew Lock came in and threw ridiculous hero balls deep downfield, and looked clownish doing it. No sense of down and distance, and it was so bad, Geno Smith had to enter the game at the end to give Seattle a chance to win, and gosh dang it, if Geno Smith didn’t almost pull it off like he did last week against Washington, and last month against Cleveland.

Geno Smith might not be the greatest quarterback on the planet. A lot of people want to call him mediocre, and that’s fine, if they want. I think this league is full of mediocre mid tier-ish quarterbacks, and Geno is no worse than any of them. Geno Smith is not a bad quarterback, though, and he’s not a backup, either. He’s a starter.

Drew Lock might well have proven in this game that he’s not even be a good backup. If Seattle honestly thought his upside was higher than Geno’s, he would have been made the starter last year. They do not, and he didn’t.

The people who’s mantra has been “Geno Smith has always been a backup for a reason” while clamoring for Drew Lock must be one step removed from being flat earthers. How else can their lack of logic be explained?

I got news for them. If Geno Smith had not gotten knocked out of this game midway through the second half, I think Seattle most likely would have won this game. Yes, he wasn’t perfect, and yes, there were some shitty penalties called against Seattle that benefitted LA, but I think Seattle would have overcome those, and got it together more in the fourth quarter just like they did last week.

You know why I kinda feel this way? Because that is how Seattle has been playing a lot lately with Geno Smith. He’s been a fourth quarter guy.

Drew Lock? Please. I’m honestly kinda glad this whole thing happened so everyone got a good old dose of Drew before Geno game back in to almost save the day.. yet again.

And while I am on this peppery tangent, how annoying is Shane Waldron’s play-calling still, and all these dumb procedural penalties and lack of proper execution? Who the fuck knows if Waldron was calling those down field YOLO balls for Lock when he went in, or if Lock took it upon himself to throw at guys who weren’t the primary receivers that the plays were drawn up for, but there were plenty of other times earlier where I was scratching my head when Geno was in the game.

Seattle is now ten games into their season, and they are still playing way too sloppy on offense, and this offense is still tough to figure out what they want to be. There is not nearly as much commitment to the run as there should be, and there is way too much sloppiness, and lack of awareness of down and distance at times is almost comical.

Geno takes a dumb delay of game in the red zone, doesn’t spike the ball in the final moments of the game to preserve more time for another play or two, someone isn’t lined up right another time, Will Dissly drops a ridiculously catchable ball, someone false starts, who the fuck even knows what Lock was doing. It’s nice to see the screen game actually working for once in a Pete Carroll offense, but there is still way too much slop going on.

As I watched this game unfold, it dawned on me that we never see this type of slop from a McVay coached offense, or from Shanahan’s, or even a Kevin Stefanski one. When Seattle gets blown out by the Ravens, I feel like it’s just one of those days, and I can easily move on, but when they lose a winnable game like this one, I look at the slop, and all the inconsistencies, and I just start to really wonder how much of this is on just the coaching.

I love Pete Carroll. I remain one of his biggest fans, I love that he’s a master motivator, and culture builder, but I think sloppiness kinda follows his teams a bit. This team, however, I think is especially sloppy, and particularly on offense. Shane Waldron has been a punching bag for me a lot lately, but shouldn’t it ultimately be up to the head coach to make sure things get better ironed out?

I watch the Cleveland Browns this year, and I am truly impressed with the job Kevin Stefanski is doing as their head coach. They have an extremely unsettling quarterback situation, and yet they are still finding ways to win.

I think Stefanski runs a very well defined offense that doesn’t try to out scheme you so much as they try to out execute you. I think that helps his players play better together as a unit, and it becomes more plug and play when injuries happen.

I also think he’s hired a very strong coaching staff full of quality proven coordinators. Jim Schwartz has been a quality defensive coordinator for years and was a head coach for a while. Bill Callahan has been a top offensive line coach for decades and was a former head coach. Alex Van Pelt has been a well regarded quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator.

Stefanski has surrounded himself with quality proven coaches, and he is maximizing the talent on his roster. Now, I don’t think that Cleveland is a true Super Bowl contender, but damn it if they aren’t impressing the shit out of me with the adversity that they have been fighting through.

Why hasn’t Pete Carroll done this in Seattle lately?

He plucked Waldron from the Rams, who had never coordinated before, and it was an assumption that he hired him because he was Russell Wilson’s preference after Brian Schottenhiemer was fired. I gotta be honest, though, we are two and a half years into the Waldron offense, and I think Schotty did a better job in Seattle. I think his offense had a much stronger identity, and while more predictable, played with better consistency. I think Darrel Bevell has been the best OC under Carroll.

Here’s the rub in this though. Schotty and Bevell both came into Seattle with coordinator experiences. I don’t want this piece about yet another annoying loss to the Rams be about how much Waldron sucks, but it’s kinda getting harder for me not to do this.

I know Waldron is a smart coach, but something is preventing him from taking the next step as a coordinator, and it is starting to cost Seattle games. What is it?

And why hasn’t Carroll stepped in more with demands for establishing the run more when it is clear that Waldron isn’t doing it enough?

I don’t know what this offense wants to be. I have no idea what the identity of it is. They are neither a great pass team or run team. They lack balance, and I have an overwhelming sense that the root of it is that Waldron wants them to do too much, and therefore, they master nothing.

It’s not just Waldron, either. Pete Carroll could have brought back Gus Bradley or some other experienced defensive coordinator out there a couple years ago, but he decided to promote Clint Hurtt who also had never coordinated before, and I still can’t totally tell what kind of defense it is that I am looking at.

I appreciate that Hurtt has made decent strides in his second year as DC, but they are starting to show signs of not being able to contain outside runs again, and that should be a fairly basic thing to stop, and too often linebackers look absolutely lost in coverage.

I kinda sense the chinks in the armor this defense more with each game. There are nice pieces on it right now, but I don’t know if they are being schemed the right way, and like Waldron, I fear Hurtt has them doing too much in their various looks and fronts.

On one hand, I think it’s commendable that Carroll wants to use his platform to give young coaches opportunities to advance, but on the other hand, I think it would also be awesome to see Carroll just bring in as much good experienced coaching talent as possible like Stefanski has in Cleveland. As it stands now, I look at this team, and I don’t feel as bought into these coaches as I would like to be at this juncture.

I also have this sinking feeling like the coordinators here have gotten progressively worse over the years. At some point, isn’t Carroll to blame for this?

Now before you start accusing of me trying to usher out Carroll for a Kevin Stefanki type, just know that I don’t want Pete Carroll fired. I just want this team clicking better. I need to see things cleaned up, and I think the coach should be subject to blame as much as the players, if not more in some ways.

Even if Drew Lock has to start a few games in place of Geno Smith, I just need to see better execution from those around him to make his job easier, and hopefully he can play within himself better than whatever it was he was trying to do against the Rams. I need to see players getting it, and executing it on both sides of the ball. Ten games into this season, and things should not be this sloppy still.

If this is not to be a playoff team this year, so be it. I just need to feel like this team as the right coaches in place to move forward next year. I know the quality of coaches in San Francisco and in LA with the Rams.

This game brought me back down to Earth with this team. All is not lost, and there are still a lot of games left to play to get it right, but damn it if we don’t need to see better, and better best come sooner than later with this tough stretch of games.

At least some more of us now know that Drew Lock is not the answer over Geno Smith. So, there’s that.

Something tell me that there will be still some Drew Lockers dug in, though. When someone vehemently believes the Earth is flat and science is lying to us, don’t hold your breath arguing with them. Just have a chuckle and move on.

Go Hawks.