Seahawk quarterback Drew Lock is back from a bout with COVID, which means he back to battling with Geno Smith for the starting job.
Meeting with reporters on Sunday, coach Pete Carroll was asked about not having a clear-cut starter by the conclusion of training camp.
“I don’t think there’s any ‘date’ pressure on me at all in that regard,” Carroll said. “I’m going to take the time it takes to figure out and make sure we have all the information that we need. I can’t wait to see what happens in this game [against the Cowboys]. Geno’s done a good job and Geno needs a little more help from some guys, they got to be able to catch the football a little better but he’s handled it well. . . . He’s put some stuff on the resume out there and so we’ll see what happens this week. And we do have really good weeks of practice coming up. This week is a great one, next week is a great one and the one after is a great one so we’ll use all of that if we need it.”
Smith had his chance to seize the starting job on Thursday night against the Bears. Smith did not.
“We didn’t function very well,” Carroll said of the offense in the most recent game. “We didn’t throw and catch the ball as well as we needed to. We didn’t catch the ball. We missed a couple key third-down situations. We got a ball knocked down. We got no rhythm at all early in the game to get going. . . . We didn’t perform at all like we should.”
So now, Lock will get a chance to perform in the third preseason game. Said Carroll of Lock: “I plan on him playing a lot a lot this week.”
At that point, most of the hay will be in the barn. Either way, the one who got away will be returning with the Broncos in 22 days. Smith or Lock, the Seahawks will have their hands full.