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Analyst explains ranking Seattle Seahawks' Geno Smith No. 18 QB

Published

2 years ago

May 31, 2024

Press Room

Analyst explains ranking Seattle Seahawks' Geno Smith No. 18 QB

Geno Smith has resurrected his career since taking over the Seattle Seahawks’ starting quarterback job two years ago.

Seahawks OTAs: What stands out to former UW coach Chris Petersen

After starting just five games between 2015 and 2021, Smith earned AP Comeback Player of the Year honors in 2022 with a breakout season that saw him lead the NFL in completion percentage and finish seventh in ESPN’s QBR metric. Smith’s production declined a bit last year, but he still finished 14th in QBR, even while playing behind an offensive line that was decimated by injuries.

However, as Pro Football Focus analyst Trevor Sikkema pointed out in his recent 2024 NFL starting quarterback rankings, the 33-year-old Smith really had four distinct stretches of play over the past two seasons. Over the first half of 2022 and the second half of 2023, he was among the best quarterbacks in the league. But over the second half of 2022 and the first half of 2023, he struggled.

Those dramatic peaks and valleys are why Sikkema ranked Smith 18th out of the NFL’s 32 potential starting quarterbacks for 2024.

“Honestly, when I had him at 18, it felt low for the highs that I have seen in Geno,” Sikkema said Wednesday on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy. “But it was just the up and down … for the last two years that was kind of tough for him. I believe he’s a really good quarterback. It’s just kind of a consistency thing. But we’ve seen it from him, for sure.”

Over the first eight weeks of the 2022 season, Smith’s 88.4 PFF grade ranked second among all quarterbacks in the league, trailing only Buffalo Bills star Josh Allen. During that stretch, Smith had 17 big-time throws and 10 turnover-worthy plays, according to PFF (see the bottom of this article for a definition of both stats). However, over the final 10 weeks of 2022, Smith had a league-high 19 turnover-worthy plays and his PFF grade plummeted to 66.8.

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It was the opposite in 2023. Over the first nine weeks of last season, Smith had a 74.2 PFF grade, 12 big-time throws and 13 turnover-worthy plays. But he heated up in the second half of the season, posting an 85.0 PFF grade with 20 big-time throws and eight turnover-worthy plays over the final nine weeks. He had the third-most big-time throws over that span, despite missing two games with a groin injury.

“He’s had these streaks over the last couple of years and you’ve just gotta all put it together,” Sikkema said. “Him being healthy, the guys around him being healthy, having that consistency, getting to play a ton together, that chemistry. I think that it’s all there for Geno.”

Note: PFF defines big-time throws as passes with “excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tighter window.” Turnover-worthy plays are either passes that have a high chance of being intercepted or when a quarterback fumbles.

Listen to the full conversation with PFF’s Trevor Sikkema at this link or in the player near the top of this post. Bump and Stacy airs live from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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Seattle, WA

Jaxon Smith-Njigba Wins AP Offensive Player Of The Year

Published

53 minutes ago

February 6, 2026

Press Room

Jaxon Smith-Njigba Wins AP Offensive Player Of The Year

Seattle Seahawks third-year receiver, Jaxon Smith-Njigba was named the Associated Press Offensive Player of the Year, for a season campaign that included 1,793 receiving yards, which led the NFL, on 119 receptions and 10 touchdowns.

“What an honor,” Smith-Njigba said on receiving the award. “I want to first give all the glory to God. Second, I want to give it to my teammates. I want to thank y’all. I love y’all. Y’all are who I do it for each and every week. I want to give this award to my father. Going into my last year [of college], he told me to pray for wisdom, and I did. Before going into that season, I wanted to be a Top 5 draft choice, I wanted to be a Heisman candidate, a bunch of things, and ultimately, I wasn’t able to play and I think with that time, I grew wise and figured out a lot about myself, and who I wanted to be and who I wanted to do it for. Ultimately dropping to the 20^th draft pick where I was selected by the Seattle Seahawks and I can’t thank everyone involved enough.”

Smith-Njigba’s third season was filled with breaking records while helping to make Seattle’s offense the No. 3 scoring offense this season (483 total points, 29.2 points per game).

Along with leading the NFL in receiving yards, he became the first player in NFL history with at least 75 receiving yards in each of his first 11 games of a season. He had nine 100+ yard games this season, with a season best of 167 yards in Week 12. He also had nine 100-yard games this season, the most in the NFL, and the most in a single season in franchise history. Along with that, Smith-Njigba set multiple franchise records and did enough to put his name next to NFL greats in the league record books.

This season he also became the third player in NFL history 23 years old or younger with at least 1,700 receiving yards in a single season and set the franchise record for most receptions in a single season with a career-high 119.

“There’s a lot of great receivers in this league who don’t have as diverse of a skill set as he does,” head coach Mike Macdonald said. “Anywhere from an intermediate route tree, catch-and-run stuff at the line of scrimmage, and then we’ve seen his ability to track the ball at the third level and keep his body position, all that kind of stuff.”

Smith-Njigba also won the Air and Ground Player of the Year award that was announced at NFL Honors.

He is just the second Seahawks player to win this award ever after Shaun Alexander won the award in 2005. Kenny Easley and Cortez Kennedy both won the Defensive Player of the Year awards in 1984 and 1992, respectively.

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Seattle, WA

The Seattle Mariners are likely done dealing… at least for now

Published

13 hours ago

February 5, 2026

Press Room

The Seattle Mariners are likely done dealing… at least for now

In what turned out to be a an offseason of highs and lows for Mariners general manager Justin Hollander and team president Jerry Dipoto. However, they were able to cap off a frustrating few weeks by acquiring infielder and 2024 All-Star, Brendan Donovan.

Wile the club saw last year’s second baseman, Jorge Polanco, and third baseman, Eugenio Suarez depart, Donovan may be a better fit for the club. He doesn’t hit with anywhere near the power of those two former Mariners, but he’s much more consistent. He ranks among MLB’s best in on-base percentage over his for years in the big leagues, and he’s a skilled defender who won a GoldGlove in his rookie season.

A career .282 hitter, Donnie gives the M’s a lot of options in the batting order and fills one of the two vacancies in the Seattle infield. The other spot seems to come down to a comperition between young players, with top prospects Colt Emerson and Cole Young battling it out with second-year man Leo Rivas during Spring Training. The most likely scenario would involve a platoon or a rotating system among at least two of them.

CLICK FOR MORE: Seattle host says Mariners’ trade for Brendan Donovan is ‘what contending teams do’

The Mariners have certainly re-loaded with enough ammo to repeat as the division champs in 2026, but are they still looking to pull off an 11th hour deal as pitchers and catchers will begin reporting to Arizona? COuld there be one more deal up the sleeve of the team’s fantastic front office?

The Mariners seem content with what they have

Heading into the new season, Seattle seems set as they look to repeat as American League West Division Champions. Although you can never put anything past the dealing duo of Hollander and Dipoto, the team can win with the cards they’ve already been dealt.

But as Spring Training unfolds and the cleats hit the field, the team will have a bird’s-eye view of what they’re working with. If management feels like they’re faltering because they’re relying on players like Emerson too much and too fast, look for them to try to bring in a stopgap veteran. Otherwise? There’s no reason to mess with this roster until at least mid-May.

More Seattle Mariners News & Opinions

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Rick Rizzs, iconic voice of the Mariners, announces he will retire after 2026 season

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UFC Seattle Lineup Nearly Complete with 11 Confirmed Bouts

Published

1 day ago

February 5, 2026

Press Room

UFC Seattle Lineup Nearly Complete with 11 Confirmed Bouts

Israel Adesanya will be a featured attraction at UFC Seattle. |
Getty/UFC

The card for the
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s upcoming trip to the Emerald
City is close to being finalized.

The Las Vegas-based promotion on Wednesday confirmed 11 bouts for

UFC Seattle, many of which had already been reported. UFC
Seattle — also known as UFC Fight Night 271 — takes place on March
28 at Climate Pledge Arena and is headlined by a middleweight
showdown pitting Israel
Adesanya against Joe Pyfer. In
the co-main event, ex-flyweight queen Alexa
Grasso will square off against Maycee
Barber at 125 pounds. The card will air in its entirety on
Paramount+.

Adesanya has lost four of his last five Octagon appearances dating
back to November 2022. In his lone appearance of 2025, “The Last
Stylebender” suffered a second-round technical knockout defeat to
Nassourdine
Imavov in the UFC Saudi Arabia headliner last February.
Adesanya captured 185-pound gold in October 2019 and authored five
successful title defenses before relinquishing the belt to
kickboxing rival Alex
Pereira at UFC 281.

A two-time competitor on
Dana White’s Contender Series, Pyfer has gone 6-1 in the
promotion since earning a UFC contract in 2022. After suffering his
lone career Octagon defeat to Jack
Hermansson in the UFC Fight Night 236 main event, “Bodybagz”
has rebounded to post successive triumphs against Marc-Andre
Barriault, Kelvin
Gastelum and Abusupiyan
Magomedov.

UFC Seattle Card

Israel
Adesanya vs. Joe Pyfer
Alexa
Grasso vs. Maycee
Barber
Marcin
Tybura vs. Valter
Walker
Chase
Hooper vs. Lance
Gibson Jr.
Michael
Chiesa vs. Carlston
Harris
Navajo
Stirling vs. Bruno
Lopes
Mansur
Abdul-Malik vs. Yousri
Belgaroui
Casey
O’Neill vs. Gabriella
Fernandes
Julian
Erosa vs. Lerryan
Douglas
Kangjie
Zhu vs. Marcio
Barbosa
Carol
Foro vs. Stephanie
Luciano