Posts like this just make me laugh and shrug my shoulders. He threw a pick, cut him. Silly post.
I don't see it that way. I really think it's not just "[h]e threw a pick, cut him."
I see it more like repeating the nonsense propagated by talk-radio mediots and talking-head TV mediots. Despite gridiron football being a team sport with dozens of
starting players (11 on offense, 11 on defense, three specialists, and the other special-teams starters that aren't in the offensive or defensive starting lineups) and active rosters of 53 players, they use the results of team competitions to make judgments about the character of individual players. The 2022 Seahawks, widely expected to be one of the worst teams in the league, have instead been in playoff contention for significant parts of the season and are going to end up in the middle of the league. Part of this has been Smith's performance, easily in the top ten QBs in the league, and roughly in the middle of that group (let's say fifth-to-seveth-best).
But for talk-radio mediots and their talking-head brethren on TV, the Seahawks are going to end up "only" around .500 because Geno Smith doesn't have magic QB pixie dust. According to those mediots, a team that doesn't win 12 or more games must have a QB who just isn't a "winner" or doesn't have the "'it' factor." Never mind the quality of the rest of the team. It's gotta be the lack of magic powers in the quarterback that's keeping the Seahawks from running roughshod over the rest of the league
.
What's dangerous about this is that despite having a quality QB "in the hand," many of the people influenced by these mediots prefer to use draft picks on college QBs "in the bush." Never mind that the success rate of even QBs selected in the first round is not that good. The secret to winning wouldn't be to fix the actual identifiable weak points in the team, like getting a better defensive line and adding a quality linebacker. No, the way to win is to use draft picks in hopes of getting a QB with magic powers that will somehow transform a middle-of-the-pack team with serious issues on defense into a title contender.
Despite all the talk during the last offseason that this next offseason would have a really strong QB draft class, the QB prospects who have gotten the most attention all have some major weaknesses.
Because many of the people on talk radio and talking about football on TV are incapable of serious analysis, they instead invent narratives like you'd find in a movie, where a single player's will and what I'm calling "magic powers" can drag a team to a title. Call it the "'it' factor" if you prefer, or call it "being a 'winner'." The closest we've ever gotten to seeing something like that all-too-frequent narrative in the NFL was in the aughts, when a few Colts teams that were basically "Peyton Manning and some guys" got to the playoffs and lost there. But instead of correctly recognizing the utter greatness of the QB that helped get those teams into the playoffs despite their glaring weaknesses, mediots questioned even Manning's character because those weak-ass Colts teams lost in the playoffs to more well-rounded teams.
Most of the people paid to analyze sports in the media do it that way (even some who are capable of better analysis, because this is just "how it's done" now, and getting paid well is more important than improving the quality of analysis - I can't honestly say with 100% certainty that I wouldn't do the same thing if given the opportunity, despite "scientist" being a huge part of my identity), and we all know that if something is repeated enough in the media, many people will come to believe it. The result is that this is how many fans now understand football. Other sports too, but we're talking about the Seahawks, and therefore the NFL, here.
All that said, I'm not advocating signing Smith at any price. I suspect Schneider has a decent idea now, and will have a better idea by the time negotiations with Smith's agent happen, of what kind of contract he can give Smith and still be able to build a competitive-for-titles team around him. If somebody else is willing to offer Smith something outside the range of what Schneider thinks the Seahawks can offer, then Smith will end up playing elsewhere. It might be another team that just signs him, or as Fade suggests, it might be a team that trades for him after he's been tagged or a team that coughs up the two first-round picks required to sign a player on whom the non-exclusive franchise tag has been placed.
