The Seattle Seahawks are still looking for a new starting quarterback after the departure of longtime starter Russell Wilson during the offseason. The position battle is coming down to Geno Smith and Drew Lock, but it sounds like head coach Pete Carroll isn’t quite ready to make a decision and doesn’t know when that decision could come.
During an appearance with the media on Sunday, the Seattle head coach was asked about the possibility that the team might not have a clear-cut starter at the end of training camp, but he doesn’t sound all that worried about it and isn’t going to hurry to make a decision.
“I don’t think there’s any ‘date’ pressure on me at all in that regard,” Carroll said, according to Pro Football Talk. “I’m going to take the time it takes to figure out and make sure we have all the information that we need. I can’t wait to see what happens in this game [against the Cowboys]. Geno’s done a good job and Geno needs a little more help from some guys, they got to be able to catch the football a little better but he’s handled it well.”
Lock was reportedly taking first-team reps during practice earlier this month, but a COVID-19 diagnosis sidelined him from practice and the team’s most recent preseason game against Chicago Bears. In his absence, Smith had a chance to seize the starting job, but he did not.
“We didn’t function very well,” Carroll said of the offense in the most recent game. “We didn’t throw and catch the ball as well as we needed to. We didn’t catch the ball. We missed a couple key third-down situations. We got a ball knocked down. We got no rhythm at all early in the game to get going. . . . We didn’t perform at all like we should.”
With Carroll not yet sold on Smith, Carroll plans to get Lock plenty of action in practice in the coming weeks and play him often during the team’s third preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys.
“I plan on him playing a lot a lot this week.”