Field Gulls
The largest story of the offseason in Seattle Seahawks universe was the trading out of Geno Smith for Sam Darnold at quarterback. We would have followed these two careers already; it’s the second time General Manager John Schneider has traded away a proven starter for an unproven up-and-comer. As if it weren’t interesting enough, Geno Smith was not sent just anywhere, but to the future Hall of Fame Head Coach Pete Carroll.
How would the Raiders and city of Las Vegas receive the former Seahawks?
Four weeks in, it’s not been great.
Starting the week off with the Rich Eisen Show, a second three-interception game has seen the media wondering if Smith’s starting job is in danger.
Seattle is 3-1 behind Sam Darnold, while Las Vegas is 1-3 behind Smith and, for the second time in five years, fans are wondering how John Schneider keeps getting away with this.
The quarterback and head coach being so intrinsically tied together, the buyer’s remorse has extended to Caroll as well.
(Editor’s note: Pete basically settled for a long field goal despite having two timeouts and 40 seconds left while already in field goal range. The kick was blocked and the Raiders lost.)
Do those last two sound familiar? As it was with Geno and Russell Wilson before him, it’s always a bit surreal – to me at least – to see fans complaining about the exact same things we wondered about here. How Carroll implemented – or didn’t – his “always compete” mantra in the final years raised plenty of questions.
Let’s be clear: Carroll has a much safer position than Smith does. Carroll also will give Geno Smith a much longer leash than any head coach would this season. That being said, Smith is on pace to throw 30 INTs, and I believe something would give if that pace continued.
From Sports Illustrated on the situation:
Raider Nation was promised a top-15 quarterback when they traded for Smith, but instead, he’s a bottom-five quarterback in the league at the moment and is actively prohibiting his team from winning with his costly turnovers and head-scratching decision-making.
Finally, more could and will be said on this in the days ahead, but this pill is surely harder to swallow for any Raiders fans doing a cursory comparison to Sam Darnold!
After four weeks, Darnold continues to be the first or second-best quarterback in metrics like Completion Percentage Over Expected, while Geno is first in picks and third in Interception Percentage.
What an absolute reversal of offensive outlooks, and a minor revolt already brewing in Vegas.
