The Seahawks lead the NFC West through 12 weeks.
The 2024 Seattle Seahawks are far from perfect. The season has already provided more ups and downs than a kangaroo’s yo-yo.
From losing to the hapless New York Giants to beating division rivals San Francisco, emotions are understandably running high among the 12s.
But coming into Thanksgiving weekend, the ‘Hawks sit atop the NFC West with a 6-5 record.
Along with a welcome revival from the defense in recent matches, Seattle owes most of the team’s success to its much-maligned signal caller.
Geno Smith is not Joe Burrow or Patrick Mahomes. He is also not Daniel Jones or Will Levis.
When the 12s react to a frustrating interception by calling for Smith’s head, they would do well to look around the league and maintain some perspective.
Smith has put this team on his back time and time again this season, overcoming a non-existent run game and woeful offensive line play.
The Seattle run game ranks in the bottom five in the NFL in yards, yards per attempt and first downs – per Pro Football Reference.
Burrow – and arguably Matthew Stafford – are the only quarterbacks doing as well as Smith at overcoming such deficiencies this season.
However, neither of them have winning records at the time of writing – Smith does.
Bounce-back-ability
Critics have regularly been pointing out that Smith leads the league in interceptions.
He has certainly thrown some bad redzone picks which have hurt the team in recent weeks.
However, his ability to bounce back from these errors is almost unparalleled around the league.
The game-winning touchdown drive against the 49ers and the late field goal drive to seal a win over Arizona came after big mistakes earlier in each match.
Given the Seahawks have long had a penchant for tight, exciting contests, the value of a quarterback who is at his best in the big moments cannot be overstated.
Postseason-bound?
Coming into Week 13, Smith is ranked first among NFL quarterbacks in passing yards per game with 275.9.
Pro Football Reference also ranks the Seahawks best in the league with over 81% of throws being on target.
Seattle has a bad throw percentage of just 10.8% – almost a whole point less than any other team.
Geno is unlikely to enter the MVP race any time soon. However he is a solid starting quarterback for Seattle and on his day can be a match-winner.
Will he manage to overcome the Seahawks’ deficiencies and guide them to the playoffs this season? That remains to be seen.
