Geno Smith 2022 stat reminders

Will Geno take on an even bigger workload in 2023? Seaside Joe 1567

One of my favorite hobbies in my past life as a rabid Twitter users was to use Pro-Football-Reference’s ‘stathead’ tool to unearth statistical facts about highly-achieving Seahawks, which most often meant Russell Wilson. But now two key figures in that hobby are no longer where they used to be: Wilson’s in Denver and I am on Substack.

Geno Smith has only had one season at the helm for Seattle, but he’s already had a year that was at least statistically comparable to one of Wilson’s better-than-average campaigns. Geno’s league-leading completion percentage was better than any ever posted by Wilson, perhaps made slightly more notable by the fact that Geno threw 572 passes…more than any season by Russ.

What I don’t intend to do is compare the current quarterback to the one he replaced, as they are in different situations at different times and have different styles. If anything, I would use the fact that Wilson was so good in his prime as a compliment to Geno that the fall off was not nearly as dramatic as many—myself atop that list—assumed that it would be.

But I rarely get around to sharing Geno’s statistical achievements from last season and given the potential of this offense’s improvement next season, including the addition of Jaxon Smith-Njigba (part II of his origin story), the development of tackles Charles Cross and Abe Lucas, the backfield duo of Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet, and giving Shane Waldron a third year to get on the same page as Geno, the Seahawks could have a top-5 scoring unit. Perhaps even aided by their schedule of defenses.

I would add to that though that if Pete Carroll gets his way, including a strong fourth quarter rushing attack and a much better defense, Seattle may not amplify their scoring by much or their passing production at all. We may see Geno throw the ball 500 times instead of 600. But then perhaps he could have a league-leading passer rating, something that Wilson had in 2015. Or a touchdown rate over 8%, something that Wilson had in 2018. Or a league-best completion percentage, something that…

Oh yeah, Geno Smith already has that.

I wouldn’t call this a fully comprehensive breakdown based on the Seaside Joe Standard for Comprehensiveness, but it’s a good start. And it’s better than Twitter.

QB Geno Smith

Set single-season passing yards record: 4,282

He was helped out by having a 17th game, and playing in the modern era, but Smith’s 251.9 yards per game average still ranks fourth in franchise history behind 2016, 2020, and 2019 by Russell Wilson. Smith’s 100.9 passer rating is the seventh-best mark, behind six Wilson campaigns. And Geno’s 30 touchdowns ranks seventh, behind five Wilson seasons and Dave Krieg’s 32 touchdowns in 1984.

Most “games” in a season

With four 300-yard games, the only quarterback well ahead of Geno last season was Patrick Mahomes, who had 10 such contests. But Geno only had two fewer than Josh Allen and one fewer than Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, Tom Brady, and Jared Goff. Since Geno had at least two touchdowns in all four of those games, his standing against the rest of the league looks even better for games with 300+ yards and 2+ touchdowns:

Geno’s 13 games with 200 passing yards is the second-most by a Seahawks quarterback behind two seasons by Wilson in which he had 15 such contests. Geno is tied with Warren Moon’s 1997, Matt Hasselbeck’s 2003, and two more seasons by Russ.

There were also 12 games in which Geno had at least two touchdowns, one less than Russ in 2018 and tied with Russ’s mark in 2017. Geno had 10 games last season with at least 200 yards and two touchdowns, tied for the third-best mark in the NFL behind Mahomes and Burrow.

Geno was also asked to do a lot, as he was one of only four quarterbacks to throw at least 25 pass attempts in 17 games. Even better, Geno had a passer rating of at least 100 in 10 games, tied with Mahomes for the most in the NFL, and if you go one tick lower to a 99.0 passer rating, Geno led the NFL with 11 such games. Even more than Mahomes.

Though he certainly did benefit from some interception-worthy luck and may have had a few throws that he would like to un-do even though they weren’t turnovers (dropped, called back by penalty), the final record shows few terrible starts on Geno’s 2022 game log: In only two games did he have more interceptions than touchdowns and only twice did he have a passer rating below 80.

His predecessor was tied with Davis Mills and Mac Jones for the most games in the NFL with a passer rating below 80 with six.

Geno’s 2023 season

In addition to coming for MVP votes, Geno Smith will also actually have to hold off Drew Lock. Pete emphasizes protecting the football above all other priorities and Geno had far too many throws that could have been interceptions and he did have eight interceptions in the last eight games, including playoffs.

The main thing holding Lock back from starting last season was his history of turnovers and turnover worthy plays. If Geno doesn’t get those under control, there will be no reason to not give Lock an opportunity. The Seahawks can also help Geno to avoid those plays, not only by playing better as an offensive line and supporting cast (DK Metcalf had at least a couple of plays that caused turnovers), but by holding leads going into the fourth quarter and running the ball more efficiently; seven of Geno’s 11 interceptions came when the Seahawks were trailing.

But with so much momentum building on what Seattle could do offensively this year, we might see a better Geno Smith. If that happens, we’ll definitely see more posts like this one about Geno Smith.