It is very very difficult for me to put much stock in a scenario in which Jamal Adams plays productively over a full season with the Seahawks. If only wishing could make it so, because cutting the guy is expensive in its own way. Re-sign Neal, and not sure what to do about Diggs. See if you can reduce his cap hit if you are going to keep him.
Tackling--absolutely agreed. Mostly bad all year, and as bad at the end as at the beginning. That said, speaking about the beginning, the prospect of yet another season of an awful defense early on, followed by wild, inexpicable fluctuations thereafter, is about more than I can take. Mixed feelings about Hurtt, at best, as a result.
I liked Nwosu, despite his proclivity to disappear from game to game. Not sure what he will command on the market. How many snaps did Taylor get yesterday? Why was Irvin playing so much over Mafe? The Pete Way is to play young talent into being good--where was that? Seems like another version of the disappearance of that DE from Syracuse last year...
Re-sign Geno for decent money. Do NOT franchise him. And for heaven's sake stop talking to reporters about doing that!! Don't shy away from picking a QB at 5, if you really like him. Not a fan of picking Carter at that point--far too inconsistent, with questionable work ethic. If it gets to 5 and you don't like the QBs available, probably Anderson or trade down.
You are correct about Geno. And yet, it’s very hard to upgrade from the 15th best qb. How do you do that? Take a swing in the draft ? Sure. Nobody is saying tho that AR has the winning vibe that they said about Russ when he was coming out. Which one is that guy?
Ithe question I’m asking after today was why did it seem like purdy had a day full of easy (20 yard!) throws vs Geno who seemed to have very few / none?
Yes, they need to keep all three safeties because none of them are exactly bastions of health, particularly Adams, so it's necessary to have that depth. We saw the big downgrade when even Neal went out, let alone Adams at the beginning of the year. The Josh Jones experiment went about as poorly as any secondary player the Hawks have had in the past 10 years.
Great season overall. I hope JS&PC make perfect FA decisions, draft wisely, and everybody stays healthy next year.
Me? I'm taking a pass on drafting a QB. Maybe trade down to pick up a '24 first round pick from Carolina. Get two front seven guys in round one, then a WR, and center in rd. two, and whatever awesome guys in any position that fall to the third round or lower.
I'd be happy to have Geno as QB next season but the expected price tag would make it a no-go for me. If Geno were to walk that's $30+ million that could be spent on both lines or LB and a QB prospect could be drafted. And then you could bring in 4 top prospects via the draft. And I believe in 2024 their cap situation is good with a lot of rookies and 1st year players hopefully making up the core.
I want the Hawks to be bullies again... they got pushed around today while giving up lots of explosive plays and that's not ever going to be winning football.
I went into this season as an strong proponent of the value of the rookie contract. Huge contracts seem to be the norm for certain positions. WR 1 & 2, Edge 1 & 2, CB 1 & 2, LT and QB. Typically teams have a superstar at another position or two as well (SS Adams for the Hawks and DT Donald for the Rams as examples).
That said, there is NO way to have huge contracts for each of these 8-10 priority positions. I submit the only way to keep from diluting the rest of the roster is to have a steady rotation of rookie contracts so there are about half of these being big deals at the most. Otherwise there will not even be enough room to field a decent team around your stars.
We can get away with paying a QB once we have the right balance of rookie deals to accomplish such but until then, we are way too tight on the salary cap. We have done this before - the right way when we drafted Russ. The wrong way while over-paying him.
Plus we just lost to a juggernaut of a 49'ers team who is playing a cheap QB. Brock Purdy has been so successful because of the team around him. This very average QB's team is Only leading the league in scoring over the last 6-7 weeks.
We kept this playoff game close but eventually got creamed by the combination of a game-wrecking D-line, pro-bowl LBs, quality back line defenders, a stout O-line without major holes and primo play-makers at all positions to go with an $870,000 quarterback.
Which 5-6 players can we do without in order to sign Geno for $30,000,000 annually? Sorry gang...it looks like 'Mr. Smith goes to Washington' - OR better yet, his camp will go for a deal that has only a $10M maximum cap hit in 2023. Fingers crossed.
Not to be a sourpuss, but I'm a no on Ryan Neal getting starter money to come back. Abram has been pretty good and Adams well be back next year. Let someone else give Neal the money he deserves.
Not super stoked on Geno-at-all-costs. He's a good QB, and can lead a great team to great success. Seriously, imagine Geno quarterbacking that niners team, holy cow. But he has proven not to be that guy that can pull a W out of his ass when the team needs it. He's not prime Russell Wilson. The goal has to be building a team like the Niners: a team that dominates the trenches and has some great playmakers. The QB can literally be Mr. Irrelevant, it doesn't matter, so long as he can hit wide open playmakers given near infinite time in the pocket. I could do what Brock Purdy did today. We need to build up the team on each line to win every snap and make sure we have guys that can take it to the house if they get the ball in space.
I thought Waldron's 2nd half play-calling was uninspired and Lockett had a rare bad game. The Geno interception came when Lockett rounded off his route and made little effort to separate from coverage. K9 was good but didn't get used enough in the second half because of the score. If we had kept it close I think K9 would have gone over a hundred and broken a long one.
I was also disappointed in Hurtt's 2nd half. Did we blitz even once? Deebo makes a lot of people miss with his strength but yeh, the tackling was bad. Credit where credit is due, the Niners big plays were blocked perfectly. Woolen and Bryant need a year in an NFL weight room. Muse looked good out there and his zone coverage made a difference. Per PFF, with a lot fewer snaps, he was a our highest rated linebacker this year. I honestly don't know what to make of Brooks and Barton.
This game looked to me like the same old story. We just don't have enough talent in the defensive front seven. Nwosu is good but we need four of him for the OLB rotation. The down linemen aren't disruptive and our linebackers and corners don't get off of blocks well.
We're three starters from being really good on offense. Defense needs rotations so I estimate we're about eight players short on defense. Another year of maturity and a repeat of last offseason would make 2023 a Seahawk year to gleefully anticipate.
I looked into that and we kind-of did... kinda. We had the nose tackle, and Ford and Harris are beefy guys that can hold the line of scrimmage. We had Nwosu but Brooks, Barton, and the rotation of Irvin, Walker, and Mafe didn't hold up their end. The fact we had to bring Irvin in makes a big statement. Woods, Ford, and Harris are just decent, not disruptive. Further, Coby's rookie tackling failures cost us since the slot nickel is an important piece in the run defense.
What a ride! It'll be fun to speculate about the next few months. Come what may, I have been very entertained by the Hawks and by SSJoe and the many comments from the readers. Let's keep it coming!
Big money for Geno? Big mistake! Hawks could get Derek Carr for a lot less and use the savings on proven veteran talent and use their high draft picks to fill holes at C, G, DT, rush end LB , WR and a young QB. ( if they fall in love with one ) Let some other QB. desperate team pay Geno.
They went 9 % 8 with a week schedule and exceeded all expectations.
Congratulations for making all the idiot talking heads eat crow.
Carr is still under contract for I believe $40 million next year, he is not cheap. I don't know how much of that counts against the Raider's cap but regardless, he would be a high priced one year guy (I think). Plus he's as old as Geno and I think a worse QB so why do that?
What makes you think they could get Derek Carr for a lot less? We could get Marcus Mariota or Baker Mayfield maybe but Carr isn't going to be cheap. I think there's a really good chance he will end up a New York Jet.
Building a championship caliber team takes skill and luck. Lots and lots of luck. It's remarkable how Pete Carroll always seems to push his teams to perform at or above their level of talent but we've not had great talent since the decline of the LOB. Geno, despite performing far better than expected, remains underwhelming. I can't support paying him top dollar. If we do, I wouldn't want it to be on a long-term contract. Would like to see another great draft and the willingness to really open up a competition for QB. If Geno's not a part of that, so be it. Better than overpaying when so much comes down to successful allocation of limited cap capital.
While Geno may not have strengthened his hand today, Trevor Lawrence certainly is. He was the consensus #1 pick, many saying on the ilk of Andrew Luck. Yet here we are in his Year 3, he just threw his 3rd int of his first playoff game so his team is down 17-0.
Even a guy like him can be worse than Geno. Geno feeling pretty valuable to me right now...
I’m with you. Draft a good center early for once and maybe you get an Unger (is a deep centers draft); him plus your tackles now in year 2 give him a cleaner pocket. Then also get a day 1/day 2 WR for him (and eventually to replace our beloved NoE). And Geno has the experience to build on of having had his first fully year in 8 yrs. With Penny back and Dissly back, wouldn’t it be possible he’d do BETTER than 70%/4000 yds/30 TD’s? Maybe even 40?
I’m resigned to the fact that he’ll throw 15 int’s but those are man-style QB numbers, esp in a Carroll offense where if he has Penny and Walker there will be a bunch of running plays.
I’m just wondering if a bird in the hand isn’t worth two in the bush. There isn’t one single Lawrence measurable that compares to Geno in any of his three years in the league. Gambling on a Lawrence or Fields or Lance or Love or Pickens or Wentz or whoever, sure seems risky. It’s like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.
Seaside Joe says hedge your bets. Do draft a QB at #5 but also sign Geno.
Not sure about the QB at #5 but do agree with him it’s too risky to let Geno get away.
Think it’s the franchise tag or slightly less but yeah $32/$33. For a guy who can do 4000+ and complete 70% of his passes with two rookie tackles, a bad center and average guards, two outstanding WR’s but no WR3 and good but not great TE’s.
If Seattle were to draft Breese at #5 (assumes Anderson and Carter are gone), a Max Unger type center at #19 like maybe Schmitz (which I think also makes the guards better cuz he’s cleaning up the middle), and then a WR at 37 and a LB at 55 (assuming no trade downs), and considering our two tackles now have a full professional offseason under their belts, couldn’t you argue Geno could do 75% and 4500 yards? This was his first full season in 8 yrs as well…maybe there are 15 int’s in there but with a 3rd top WR and a cleaner pocket perhaps 35 or even 40 TD’s.
It’s $32-$35m yes, but those numbers don’t fall off trees.
Yes - gotta have a stud C from this draft. They almost never get into the first round. There certainly are not 4 other teams that are willing to invest heavily this year on a C so I submit John Schneider (who Loves to select positions of strength within a draft) will get a Great C for a great value with our own second-round pic.
Yes, and just as with Cliff Avril and several other examples, they tend to give out the same 2-year deals to players who they want to extend if they have a strong first year on a 2-year deal. So it is rational to assume he was in a "contract" year of sorts. I wrote about it on Friday.
The Seahawks had the Niners right where they wanted at halftime but the mistakes by Geno put them into catch-up mode and this team is not built for that. The red zone turnover just can’t happen.
The Seahawks deserve all the credit for making the playoffs but I just don’t think Geno is the guy you want for more than one more year, and if the Seahawks need a bridge QB for the guy they draft why can’t that guy be Lock? The one disappointing thing for me this season is that we never saw Lock run Waldron’s scheme in real time with the 1’s. His athleticism is greater than Geno’s and it is hard for me to not think he would have been at least as successful.
Thanks Ken for a great season and I agree the fun is just getting started!
The mistakes Geno made? QBs can fumble when in duress. The fumble happened immediately after we changed centers due to injury and I believe it was Gabe Jackson who got beat. Re-watch the interception and explain why Lockett rounded off his route, doing nothing to separate from coverage. Lockett had a bad day; I wonder if he was injured. We played from behind because the defense sucked in the second half. The fumble was at the Niner's 20 and the interception at the 50. They scored both times... on the defense.
The defense did suck in the second half, and I would put most of the blame for the loss on that side of the ball. However, that fumble by Geno was the single play that stood out most as a turning point to the game. I don't think I'm the only one who said out loud before the ball was snapped, "just don't turn it over here." It was third and long well inside of field goal range. The ONLY thing you can't do is give the ball away in that situation. All season Geno took sacks in the worst possible moments. In this game he really needed to just take the frickin' sack!
He didn't put the ball in harms way and he wasn't carrying it like a loaf of bread. SF may have the best pass rush in the league and one of those big dude ripped it away. Josh Allen has the league's most turnovers at QB (ints + fumbles) but nobody is saying he's a problem because they have a good team; same for Dak Prescot. Smith has the league leading accuracy rate while averaging 7.5 yards per attempt. Each of them has their strength and the difference is the team around them. Geno ranked 12th in interceptions but Allen, Mahomes, Prescot, and Rodgers had more.
He led the NFL in completion percentage and was up there (6th?) in avg yards/catch? Would like him to come through more in the clutch but he’s a good QB. And today if you take away some of those penalties, might have had a chance to make a better game out of it. For sure Seattle needs more pieces so cap management is critical, but replacing what Geno did this year is extremely difficult.
Not going anywhere, looking forward to the next few months around here!
It is very very difficult for me to put much stock in a scenario in which Jamal Adams plays productively over a full season with the Seahawks. If only wishing could make it so, because cutting the guy is expensive in its own way. Re-sign Neal, and not sure what to do about Diggs. See if you can reduce his cap hit if you are going to keep him.
Tackling--absolutely agreed. Mostly bad all year, and as bad at the end as at the beginning. That said, speaking about the beginning, the prospect of yet another season of an awful defense early on, followed by wild, inexpicable fluctuations thereafter, is about more than I can take. Mixed feelings about Hurtt, at best, as a result.
I liked Nwosu, despite his proclivity to disappear from game to game. Not sure what he will command on the market. How many snaps did Taylor get yesterday? Why was Irvin playing so much over Mafe? The Pete Way is to play young talent into being good--where was that? Seems like another version of the disappearance of that DE from Syracuse last year...
Re-sign Geno for decent money. Do NOT franchise him. And for heaven's sake stop talking to reporters about doing that!! Don't shy away from picking a QB at 5, if you really like him. Not a fan of picking Carter at that point--far too inconsistent, with questionable work ethic. If it gets to 5 and you don't like the QBs available, probably Anderson or trade down.
You are correct about Geno. And yet, it’s very hard to upgrade from the 15th best qb. How do you do that? Take a swing in the draft ? Sure. Nobody is saying tho that AR has the winning vibe that they said about Russ when he was coming out. Which one is that guy?
Ithe question I’m asking after today was why did it seem like purdy had a day full of easy (20 yard!) throws vs Geno who seemed to have very few / none?
Yes, they need to keep all three safeties because none of them are exactly bastions of health, particularly Adams, so it's necessary to have that depth. We saw the big downgrade when even Neal went out, let alone Adams at the beginning of the year. The Josh Jones experiment went about as poorly as any secondary player the Hawks have had in the past 10 years.
Great season overall. I hope JS&PC make perfect FA decisions, draft wisely, and everybody stays healthy next year.
Me? I'm taking a pass on drafting a QB. Maybe trade down to pick up a '24 first round pick from Carolina. Get two front seven guys in round one, then a WR, and center in rd. two, and whatever awesome guys in any position that fall to the third round or lower.
I'd be happy to have Geno as QB next season but the expected price tag would make it a no-go for me. If Geno were to walk that's $30+ million that could be spent on both lines or LB and a QB prospect could be drafted. And then you could bring in 4 top prospects via the draft. And I believe in 2024 their cap situation is good with a lot of rookies and 1st year players hopefully making up the core.
I want the Hawks to be bullies again... they got pushed around today while giving up lots of explosive plays and that's not ever going to be winning football.
Big Money for Geno???
I went into this season as an strong proponent of the value of the rookie contract. Huge contracts seem to be the norm for certain positions. WR 1 & 2, Edge 1 & 2, CB 1 & 2, LT and QB. Typically teams have a superstar at another position or two as well (SS Adams for the Hawks and DT Donald for the Rams as examples).
That said, there is NO way to have huge contracts for each of these 8-10 priority positions. I submit the only way to keep from diluting the rest of the roster is to have a steady rotation of rookie contracts so there are about half of these being big deals at the most. Otherwise there will not even be enough room to field a decent team around your stars.
We can get away with paying a QB once we have the right balance of rookie deals to accomplish such but until then, we are way too tight on the salary cap. We have done this before - the right way when we drafted Russ. The wrong way while over-paying him.
Plus we just lost to a juggernaut of a 49'ers team who is playing a cheap QB. Brock Purdy has been so successful because of the team around him. This very average QB's team is Only leading the league in scoring over the last 6-7 weeks.
We kept this playoff game close but eventually got creamed by the combination of a game-wrecking D-line, pro-bowl LBs, quality back line defenders, a stout O-line without major holes and primo play-makers at all positions to go with an $870,000 quarterback.
Which 5-6 players can we do without in order to sign Geno for $30,000,000 annually? Sorry gang...it looks like 'Mr. Smith goes to Washington' - OR better yet, his camp will go for a deal that has only a $10M maximum cap hit in 2023. Fingers crossed.
Not to be a sourpuss, but I'm a no on Ryan Neal getting starter money to come back. Abram has been pretty good and Adams well be back next year. Let someone else give Neal the money he deserves.
Not super stoked on Geno-at-all-costs. He's a good QB, and can lead a great team to great success. Seriously, imagine Geno quarterbacking that niners team, holy cow. But he has proven not to be that guy that can pull a W out of his ass when the team needs it. He's not prime Russell Wilson. The goal has to be building a team like the Niners: a team that dominates the trenches and has some great playmakers. The QB can literally be Mr. Irrelevant, it doesn't matter, so long as he can hit wide open playmakers given near infinite time in the pocket. I could do what Brock Purdy did today. We need to build up the team on each line to win every snap and make sure we have guys that can take it to the house if they get the ball in space.
I thought Waldron's 2nd half play-calling was uninspired and Lockett had a rare bad game. The Geno interception came when Lockett rounded off his route and made little effort to separate from coverage. K9 was good but didn't get used enough in the second half because of the score. If we had kept it close I think K9 would have gone over a hundred and broken a long one.
I was also disappointed in Hurtt's 2nd half. Did we blitz even once? Deebo makes a lot of people miss with his strength but yeh, the tackling was bad. Credit where credit is due, the Niners big plays were blocked perfectly. Woolen and Bryant need a year in an NFL weight room. Muse looked good out there and his zone coverage made a difference. Per PFF, with a lot fewer snaps, he was a our highest rated linebacker this year. I honestly don't know what to make of Brooks and Barton.
This game looked to me like the same old story. We just don't have enough talent in the defensive front seven. Nwosu is good but we need four of him for the OLB rotation. The down linemen aren't disruptive and our linebackers and corners don't get off of blocks well.
We're three starters from being really good on offense. Defense needs rotations so I estimate we're about eight players short on defense. Another year of maturity and a repeat of last offseason would make 2023 a Seahawk year to gleefully anticipate.
Plain and simple, we just didn't have the personnel for a 3/4 D!
I looked into that and we kind-of did... kinda. We had the nose tackle, and Ford and Harris are beefy guys that can hold the line of scrimmage. We had Nwosu but Brooks, Barton, and the rotation of Irvin, Walker, and Mafe didn't hold up their end. The fact we had to bring Irvin in makes a big statement. Woods, Ford, and Harris are just decent, not disruptive. Further, Coby's rookie tackling failures cost us since the slot nickel is an important piece in the run defense.
I know we got behind but we hardly saw K9 in the second half. It was Dallas and rushed pass attempts. Was Walker hurt?
What a ride! It'll be fun to speculate about the next few months. Come what may, I have been very entertained by the Hawks and by SSJoe and the many comments from the readers. Let's keep it coming!
Big money for Geno? Big mistake! Hawks could get Derek Carr for a lot less and use the savings on proven veteran talent and use their high draft picks to fill holes at C, G, DT, rush end LB , WR and a young QB. ( if they fall in love with one ) Let some other QB. desperate team pay Geno.
They went 9 % 8 with a week schedule and exceeded all expectations.
Congratulations for making all the idiot talking heads eat crow.
Carr is still under contract for I believe $40 million next year, he is not cheap. I don't know how much of that counts against the Raider's cap but regardless, he would be a high priced one year guy (I think). Plus he's as old as Geno and I think a worse QB so why do that?
Because the Raiders would pay half his salary to limit their hit.
What makes you think they could get Derek Carr for a lot less? We could get Marcus Mariota or Baker Mayfield maybe but Carr isn't going to be cheap. I think there's a really good chance he will end up a New York Jet.
Or New Orleans.
Building a championship caliber team takes skill and luck. Lots and lots of luck. It's remarkable how Pete Carroll always seems to push his teams to perform at or above their level of talent but we've not had great talent since the decline of the LOB. Geno, despite performing far better than expected, remains underwhelming. I can't support paying him top dollar. If we do, I wouldn't want it to be on a long-term contract. Would like to see another great draft and the willingness to really open up a competition for QB. If Geno's not a part of that, so be it. Better than overpaying when so much comes down to successful allocation of limited cap capital.
Why do you think Pete is so keen to keep him?
Pete likes the bird in the hand. A guy already in the system, who knows the plays. He feels he can manage weaknesses. To a large extent, he can.
I think Pete would say he can enhance strengths and minimize weaknesses but the strengths have to be there to start with.
Amen
While Geno may not have strengthened his hand today, Trevor Lawrence certainly is. He was the consensus #1 pick, many saying on the ilk of Andrew Luck. Yet here we are in his Year 3, he just threw his 3rd int of his first playoff game so his team is down 17-0.
Even a guy like him can be worse than Geno. Geno feeling pretty valuable to me right now...
Lawrence's team won t j e game! Geno's didnt!
For a team in "win now" mode, maybe Geno's better to have than Lawrence. But Trevor is a guy you can build around. Geno is not.
Why is Geno not someone you can build around?
I’m with you. Draft a good center early for once and maybe you get an Unger (is a deep centers draft); him plus your tackles now in year 2 give him a cleaner pocket. Then also get a day 1/day 2 WR for him (and eventually to replace our beloved NoE). And Geno has the experience to build on of having had his first fully year in 8 yrs. With Penny back and Dissly back, wouldn’t it be possible he’d do BETTER than 70%/4000 yds/30 TD’s? Maybe even 40?
I’m resigned to the fact that he’ll throw 15 int’s but those are man-style QB numbers, esp in a Carroll offense where if he has Penny and Walker there will be a bunch of running plays.
I’m just wondering if a bird in the hand isn’t worth two in the bush. There isn’t one single Lawrence measurable that compares to Geno in any of his three years in the league. Gambling on a Lawrence or Fields or Lance or Love or Pickens or Wentz or whoever, sure seems risky. It’s like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.
Seaside Joe says hedge your bets. Do draft a QB at #5 but also sign Geno.
Not sure about the QB at #5 but do agree with him it’s too risky to let Geno get away.
At 35 mill? No way!
Think it’s the franchise tag or slightly less but yeah $32/$33. For a guy who can do 4000+ and complete 70% of his passes with two rookie tackles, a bad center and average guards, two outstanding WR’s but no WR3 and good but not great TE’s.
If Seattle were to draft Breese at #5 (assumes Anderson and Carter are gone), a Max Unger type center at #19 like maybe Schmitz (which I think also makes the guards better cuz he’s cleaning up the middle), and then a WR at 37 and a LB at 55 (assuming no trade downs), and considering our two tackles now have a full professional offseason under their belts, couldn’t you argue Geno could do 75% and 4500 yards? This was his first full season in 8 yrs as well…maybe there are 15 int’s in there but with a 3rd top WR and a cleaner pocket perhaps 35 or even 40 TD’s.
It’s $32-$35m yes, but those numbers don’t fall off trees.
Yes - gotta have a stud C from this draft. They almost never get into the first round. There certainly are not 4 other teams that are willing to invest heavily this year on a C so I submit John Schneider (who Loves to select positions of strength within a draft) will get a Great C for a great value with our own second-round pic.
Kenneth great article on SBN about Geno as comeback player of the year.
Strongly concur!
Isn't Nwosu on a 2 year deal that includes this and next season?
Playing Adams LB would be a clever Move, his caverage ability is meh anyway... Or even Edge?
C, G, LB, Edge, WR, QB - there are many needs.
Yes, and just as with Cliff Avril and several other examples, they tend to give out the same 2-year deals to players who they want to extend if they have a strong first year on a 2-year deal. So it is rational to assume he was in a "contract" year of sorts. I wrote about it on Friday.
The Seahawks had the Niners right where they wanted at halftime but the mistakes by Geno put them into catch-up mode and this team is not built for that. The red zone turnover just can’t happen.
The Seahawks deserve all the credit for making the playoffs but I just don’t think Geno is the guy you want for more than one more year, and if the Seahawks need a bridge QB for the guy they draft why can’t that guy be Lock? The one disappointing thing for me this season is that we never saw Lock run Waldron’s scheme in real time with the 1’s. His athleticism is greater than Geno’s and it is hard for me to not think he would have been at least as successful.
Thanks Ken for a great season and I agree the fun is just getting started!
The mistakes Geno made? QBs can fumble when in duress. The fumble happened immediately after we changed centers due to injury and I believe it was Gabe Jackson who got beat. Re-watch the interception and explain why Lockett rounded off his route, doing nothing to separate from coverage. Lockett had a bad day; I wonder if he was injured. We played from behind because the defense sucked in the second half. The fumble was at the Niner's 20 and the interception at the 50. They scored both times... on the defense.
The defense did suck in the second half, and I would put most of the blame for the loss on that side of the ball. However, that fumble by Geno was the single play that stood out most as a turning point to the game. I don't think I'm the only one who said out loud before the ball was snapped, "just don't turn it over here." It was third and long well inside of field goal range. The ONLY thing you can't do is give the ball away in that situation. All season Geno took sacks in the worst possible moments. In this game he really needed to just take the frickin' sack!
He didn't put the ball in harms way and he wasn't carrying it like a loaf of bread. SF may have the best pass rush in the league and one of those big dude ripped it away. Josh Allen has the league's most turnovers at QB (ints + fumbles) but nobody is saying he's a problem because they have a good team; same for Dak Prescot. Smith has the league leading accuracy rate while averaging 7.5 yards per attempt. Each of them has their strength and the difference is the team around them. Geno ranked 12th in interceptions but Allen, Mahomes, Prescot, and Rodgers had more.
And those penalties on Lewis, three ineligible player downfield calls wiping out positive yardage
He led the NFL in completion percentage and was up there (6th?) in avg yards/catch? Would like him to come through more in the clutch but he’s a good QB. And today if you take away some of those penalties, might have had a chance to make a better game out of it. For sure Seattle needs more pieces so cap management is critical, but replacing what Geno did this year is extremely difficult.
Yes, Lock would be an interesting option