Seahawks offense cruising behind Geno Smith, and the Russell Wilson trade keeps looking better
There's plenty in doubt through seven weeks of the NFL season.
One thing is increasingly clear: The Seattle Seahawks won the Russell Wilson trade by a landslide.
The Seahawks cruised on Sunday to a 37-23 win over the Los Angeles Chargers as perhaps the most surprising 4-3 team in the NFL. They were supposed to be in full rebuild mode while targeting a prime pick in next year's NFL draft after dealing Wilson to the Denver Broncos. Instead, they sit alone atop the NFC West while Denver's 2023 first-round pick acquired in the Wilson trade promises to land the premium selection.
Talk about a win-win.
Much of Seattle's early season success can be attributed to Geno Smith. While Wilson languishes in Denver, Smith has revived his career in Seattle and emerged as the NFL's most accurate passer. He entered Sunday with a league-best 73.4% completion rate that he boosted with a 20-of-27 effort against the Chargers.
This is a man who hasn't been a regular NFL starter since 2014 and saw his career derailed when a sucker punch broke his jaw in 2015. Few thought the 2013 second-round draft pick would start in the NFL again. Yet, here he is in 2022 leading a top-10 scoring offense.
Seattle entered Sunday averaging 24.3 points per game, good for ninth in the NFL. It tacked on 37 more on Sunday against a Chargers team that was favored to win by a touchdown. The Seahawks outgained the Chargers, 404 yards to 329 while averaging a potent 6.4 yards per play.
Smith didn't do it all. Not even close. He tallied 210 passing yards with two touchdowns and an interception while Seattle's ground game did the bulk of the damage. The Seahawks pounded the ball as emerging rookie Kenneth Walker III tallied 168 of Seattle's 214 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns. This is a Carroll offense, after all. And Smith is doing exactly what the Seahawks need of him.
Through seven games, Smith has averaged 245 passing yards while throwing 11 touchdowns and three interceptions. Those won't be confused with MVP numbers. But they put him squarely in the Comeback Player of the Year conversation. And after six seasons on the bench, he's proving himself as a more-than-capable starter in 2022.
Through seven weeks, the same can't be said about Wilson. He sat Sunday with a hamstring injury as the Broncos fell to 2-5 in a loss to the New York Jets as one of the NFL's biggest disappointments. The Broncos haven't been better off when he's on the field.
In his six starts, Wilson has completed 59.6% of his passes for 240.4 yards per game with five touchdowns and three interceptions for the league's lowest-scoring offense (15.2 points per game). He has repeatedly made puzzling decisions and struggled with game management alongside his rookie head coach Nathaniel Hackett. Were his name not Wilson and his sparkling new contract not guaranteed to pay him $165 million, calls for his benching would have already reached a fever pitch.
About that contract. It piles onto the win column for the Seahawks. It's the Broncos instead who are saddled with the salary-cap albatross of Wilson's five-year deal. And let's not forget the compensation. The Seahawks didn't just get Denver's first-round draft pick in 2023. In exchange for Wilson and a fourth-round pick in the 2022 draft, Seattle got Denver's first-, second-, and fifth-round picks in 2022 and their first- and second-round picks in 2023. Also tight end Noah Fant and backup quarterback Drew Lock. And those 2023 picks are shaping up to be valuable.
Did we say landslide? Check. That's a landslide. Especially considering that the 2022 second-round pick from Denver allowed Seattle to select Walker and pass rusher Boye Mafe with back-to-back selections.
The Seahawks don't have to keep up their pace for the trade to be a win. They don't have to make the playoffs or even finish the season with a winning record. This is not a season with any built-in expectations. All of this is gravy.
The Seahawks are winners because Smith is thriving and the turbo-boost the Wilson compensation provided their rebuild. Meanwhile, Wilson is not.
Is there a chance that Wilson figures things out in Denver and leads the Broncos back to winning ways? Sure. He has earned the benefit of the doubt to not be completely written off at this point of his NFL career. But nothing through his early tenure with the team suggests that it will happen. He's 33 years old and showed signs of decline before landing in Denver.
Betting on Wilson to return to form isn't wise. The Seahawks saw that and were more than happy to let another team take that risk.
