The devil you 'No
Seahawks replacing Geno Smith could return much worse results than expected: Seaside Joe 1737
It would not be hard to track down times in the past that I’ve written that the Seattle Seahawks could or should move on from Geno Smith at quarterback, whether that be in the middle of a season or when evaluating their options in 2024. I’ll stand by that now and I assume I’ll stand by that at the end of the season, because in my opinion, Geno has actually been one of the most consistent quarterbacks in the NFL since his first start with the Seahawks in 2021.
The positives and negatives that I associate with Geno are apparent in most games, and what I’ve seen doesn’t make me fearful of life after he leaves. I know that many readers disagree with me on that and I wouldn’t have it any other way: I’d rather we were split down the middle than have people feel like they’re stuck in an echo chamber. I’ll do the research, I’ll share the findings, and oftentimes I’ll come to a conclusion because that’s Seaside Joe’s purpose.
That doesn’t always make me “the one who is right”.
I’m another fan and observer, like you are, and I react based on what the present moment is compelling me to believe. As I gather more information based on the passage of time and the addition of data points, it would be malpractice for me to not be willing to update my beliefs and to share the most important changes that impact the present and future Seahawks. Even, gasp, sometimes having to admit I was wrong.
What I see in writers—and I’m mostly basing this on observing Twitter for the last 15 years, so take it with a grain of social media—is an unwillingness to change opinions based out of fear that if you admit you were wrong about something once, what could you be wrong about now? “Oh no, what if I wind up on @oldtakesexposed?”
Yeah, can you imagine how terrible that would be if somebody was…wrong about something once?!?!
I’ve always said that if there’s a take I really feel strongly about, then I have to be willing to make the best possible case for the opposite opinion. In the past, this involved being one of the first people to argue that running backs don’t matter, only to make a case for why they matter A LOT, and I ended up liking that opinion more. It’s more fun as a fan to root for running backs than to root against them and the answers aren’t actually as clear as analytics would have you believe.
Plus, it allowed me to distance myself from Ben Baldwin, which is in itself a massive reward.
I’ve said enough already about the potential benefits of parting with Geno Smith after the season, so what about the inverse? What are the benefits of keeping Geno in 2024, especially as compared to the potential replacement options—whether it be in the draft, free agency, trade, or Drew Lock—and how ugly things can get for teams when they chase the devil they don’t know over the one that they do?
Even if the Seattle Seahawks ended this season on a sour note and missed the playoffs by a mile, the changes that many fans will want—QB, HC, OC, DC—could end up being for the worst instead of the better. And there will be an argument to be made for why the Seahawks should “run it back” even if this season didn’t go as expected.
The concept of keeping Geno Smith in 2024 is what Seaside Joe is going to examine in this episode—the 1,737th straight day of sending out at least one Seahawks newsletter—and part two of the series I started last week with answering the question of why it would be so risky to fire Pete Carroll. To read the rest of this article, all the bonus content (2+ per week), to support an extremely daily Seahawks newsletter attempting to making journalism history, join Regular Joes for only $5 per month or $55 per year.
I have been anything but on the side of keeping Geno, but that doesn’t mean that I’m 100% right. I could be making a mistake, so let me try and find out where the holes are in my argument for releasing Geno Smith in 2024 and moving onto his replacement. If ever there were an NFL season that had me believing that “actually Geno Smith isn’t that bad”, we’re living in it right now…
The 2024 NFL Draft Options
I recently wrote that not drafting quarterbacks has been Pete Carroll and John Schneider’s biggest blindspot, but does not mean the Seahawks will automatically get better or find a quality parrallel option to Geno just because they use pick one or two of them next year. In fact, the odds are heavily against it.