The Seahawks plan to cut quarterback Geno Smith loose soon, letting him do what he needs to do to generate more yards and points. Smith knows what he needs to do, even if the answer qualifies for Captain Obvious treatment.
“We need to score,” Smith told reporters on Thursday. “We need to score, keep drives alive, get more plays, more opportunities, and just finish drives for the most part.”
Criticism has been heaped on the deep passing game. What do they need to do to fix it?
“We are just going to take what they give us until they start to play us more in man coverage and up in our faces,” Smith said. “It doesn’t make sense just to try and air it out just for the sake of doing that. I’m always going to take what they give us and try to be efficient on offense. That’s the main goal, to be efficient and to move the ball to score.”
Smith is confident that the offense will improve in time.
“Yeah, I believe there will be opportunities,” Smith said. “We are two games into the season, and we have a long season to play, but I do believe that there will be more opportunities. That comes with different scenarios and situations in games. I just don’t think that we have been in that situation a bunch. Like I said, when there are opportunities to take shots, which we had taken one in the last game that got called back, but when we do get those opportunities, we are going to take them. If they will continue to play us off and soft, we have to still be efficient, move the chains, and we are fine doing that as well.”
Smith said he hasn’t been passing up big-play opportunities in the name of playing it safe. He also was asked whether he thinks he’s being held back by the coaching staff.
“That’s really a question for coach, but I haven’t felt hindered,” Smith said. “I think we are, again, staying on schedule and doing what it takes to be an efficient football team and play complementary football. We are not trying to go out there and throw the ball up into double coverage. We have great guys, they run great routes, so we are going to be efficient and will do whatever it takes to score, whether it’s throwing it deep, short, or intermediate. We are trying to get points on the board. I think that is the main thing, whether it’s long or short, when you are scoring points, it’s not an issue, but when you don’t score points, it becomes an issue.”
He’s right, but the pressure will continue to mount -- especially given the presence of receivers like DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. They need to use those guys, as Smith said, “deep, short, or intermediate.” And they need to score points.
If they don’t, they can easily turn to Drew Lock for a spark.