Geno Smith won the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year award on Thursday night and that’s incredibly neat. Of all the awards, that’s one of them. It wasn’t one of them from 1967 to 1997, but then Doug Flutie happened.

Remember last year’s Comeback Player of the Year? Sure. We all do! We all immediately could recall that it was Dak Prescott.

Just kidding, it was Joe Burrow.

Until doing research for this post, I had forgotten that either were coming back last year from their devastating injuries a season earlier. But now I do. And now I’m filing back it into forgotten.

Geno follows Eric Berry, Jordy Nelson, Keenan Allen, Andrew Luck, Ryan Tannehill, Alex Smith, and Burrow for the award. Don’t read too much into me being flippant about Comeback Player of the Year; I will be just as flippant for every other honor and I don’t think it’s really all that important to most fans who even wins MVP. Sure, in the moment, it feels like something. And it’s another conversation to have during the season that keeps us occupied for maybe two-percent of the time.

Now we’ve moved on.

Earlier this week, we did some surveys to get your opinions on some hot topics going into the offseason. Here are the results:

Keep Geno Smith? 66% vote YES

Draft a QB at 5? 73% vote NO

Cut Shelby Harris? 63% vote YES

Trade Jamal Adams? 73% vote NO

Draft BPA over Need? 68% vote YES

Better than NFL honors are Seahawks-specific honors. These are decided by an exhaustive process in which I thought about it for a minute.

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Share your snubs and flubs in the Seaside Joe comments section and I’ll take it up with the committee. These are three main awards, but I’ve also thought momentarily about some other categories to be shared at a later date, so make you’re SUBSCRIBED to Seaside Joe and tell a Seahawks fan about us.

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Offensive Player of the Year - Geno Smith

It’s important to have a distinction between weighing whether the Seahawks should pay Geno Smith something akin to a $32 million franchise tag and giving him his due for the 2022 season. I wouldn’t say it is very common for a team’s offensive player of the year to also be someone considered “expendable at a certain price” but that is where Seattle could be right now.

Ari Meirov @MySportsUpdate

Geno Smith after Week 1: They wrote me off. I ain’t write back though.” The ending: Comeback Player of the Year.

3:05 AM ∙ Feb 10, 2023

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I gave stronger consideration to Ken Walker III than most other writers would give. The Seahawks went 5-1 when Walker rushed for over 90 yards, the lone loss coming to the potential Super Bowl champions (Chiefs) this Sunday. He’s as dynamic as Seaside Joe expected, if not more so, and he might have played behind one of the worst run-blocking offensive lines in the NFL.

Tyler Lockett had 1,033 yards and nine touchdowns in 16 games, serving as one of the last remaining offensive veterans on the team. Abe Lucas went above and beyond in holding down the right side of the line. DK Metcalf was a little disappointing, but still very good.

Ultimately, every other good player would have been a moot point if Geno Smith had been as bad as most of us expected at the start of the season. There was a lot of terrible QB play in the NFL this year, especially in the NFC, so even in spite of good turnover luck for most of the season and evaporating value as the season went on, I have to give the nod to Geno Smith.

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Can the Seahawks get a comparable season out of Drew Lock in 2023, if necessary? If Seattle does part with Geno in the offseason, it will be an even more telling litmus test of supporting cast/coaching/scheme value than the change from Russell Wilson to Geno.

Defensive Player of the Year - Tariq Woolen

For obvious reasons, there were fewer candidates on this side of the ball than there were on offense. It took a monumental comeback effort in the second half of the year for Quandre Diggs to become a nominee. Uchenna Nwosu was alone on an island for impactful edge rushers for most of the season. Al Woods deserves some sort of Honorary Oscar for his impact. Jordyn Brooks is regularly praised by Carroll for being one of the most dependable players he can count on.

But as I wrote in Friday’s bonus post, Tariq Woolen is a very special and unique player, not just for a rookie, and not just for a day three pick.

b♡ @yohawkgawk

tariq woolen live at the pro bowl

9:34 PM ∙ Feb 5, 2023

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Woolen’s 14 games with a pass deflection were two more than any other player. He locked down some of the game’s top receivers. He had six interceptions and was never intimidated by the rare chance to be a full-time starting rookie cornerback. Woolen gives Pete Carroll a foundational piece in the secondary and eases up Seattle’s needs at cornerback in the draft and free agency in 2023.

For me, this was an easy decision.

Special Teams Player of the Year - Godwin Igwebuike

Jason Myers was named to the Pro Bowl. Michael Dickson is trending as an all-timer at punter. But for the first time in a long time, Igwebuike gave Seahawks fans something to watch on kickoffs.

It’s hard to believe he only did it for six games, including playoffs.

CVOY🥷🏾🐢 @vountee

We can thank Seattle Dragon and Seattle Seahawk legend Godwin Igwebuike for that

Aaron Schatz 🏈 @FO_ASchatz

Baltimore fell out of the No. 1 spot in special teams this week. Seattle is now No. 1. #RavensFlock #Seahawks

9:53 PM ∙ Dec 23, 2022

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He averaged 28 yards per kick return, including a 50-yarder against the Panthers and quite a few over 30. He also made three special teams tackles.

Out of nowhere, Igwebuike made himself a must-keeper for 2023.

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