thing <\/em>and cutting ties would have been understandable, too. Instead, his performance was somewhere in the middle. There were a number of high-level plays, including the perfectly weighted touchdown pass to DK Metcalf that gave the Seahawks their first lead of the game.<\/p>\nBut things were a lot rougher in the second half. Smith coughed up the ball on strip sack late in the third quarter, which was the beginning of the end for Seattle. And his fourth-quarter interception (on a lazy route by Tyler Lockett, to be fair) put the game away for good. <\/p>\n
This game was essentially a microcosm of Geno’s breakout season, which makes his contract situation so difficult. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a long-time backup find himself in the right place at the right time and put up top-10 numbers. But this wasn’t Case Keenum throwing YOLO balls to Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen for the 2017 Vikings, or Brock Purdy riding Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers loaded offense to success. There was a bit more substance to his game, the kind of substance you usually see in the best quarterbacks. For instance, Smith was the most accurate quarterback in the NFL this season, leading the league in on-target throw rate, per Tru Media. Pro Football Focus credited him with 34 Big Time Throws, defined as \u201cexcellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and\/or into a tighter window.\u201d Only Josh Allen had more. And Smith’s combination of pocket presence and arm talent wowed movie watchers all season. He made a play like this seemingly every week: <\/p>\n
But there are also major red flags. Smith’s efficiency metrics were impressive on first and second down, when defenses have to respect the run and are vulnerable to play-action. But he was in the bottom half of the league on third down, when defenses throw their curveballs and offspeed stuff. Unsurprisingly, Smith had issues against the blitz and there was a steep increase in turnover-worthy plays in the second half of the season, which coincided with the regression of Seattle’s offensive line. The common theme: Smith struggled when he had to speed up his process and adjust to shifting defenders after the snap. <\/p>\n
Paradoxically, Smith was quite good when throwing with pass rushers in his grill. He was the NFL’s most accurate quarterback when under pressure and ranked fourth in success rate, per TruMedia. To extend the baseball metaphor from the last paragraph, Smith is basically a power hitter who crushes fastballs when he gets ahead in the count, but struggles when he falls behind. But with how long Geno has been around, it’s easy to forget how little on-field experience he actually had going into this season. As he tweeted last week, we could see a lot more streamlined process out of him next season now that he has a year’s worth of game tape to grind through. <\/p>\n
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