Defense wins vs Geno Smith, Drew Lock, but Seahawks QB battle still truly hasn’t started

The Seahawks’ quarterback competition — that still, truly isn’t one yet — will have better days.

The coaches, the team and all of the Pacific Northwest are counting on it.

With Geno Smith exclusively with the starters again and Drew Lock again with the second unit, the offense had 10 chances from inside the 10-yard line against the Seahawks’ defense Monday. It was a red-zone drill with blitzing, on the fifth day of Seattle’s training camp to find the replacement for traded Russell Wilson at the sport’s most important position.

Smith and Lock and the offenses went 0 for 10. No touchdowns. Two for 8 passing, with two false-start penalties.

Smith, the 31-year-old former New York Jets starter and Wilson’s backup in Seattle the last three seasons, went 0 for 4. His first throw was incomplete to Tyler Lockett out the back of the end zone. His second one, to a 2-yard out route by Penny Hart, skidded into the grass in front of the wide receiver’s feet.

Smith threw too high over jumping, 6-foot-4 DK Metcalf at the back of the end zone. Metcalf has a 40.5-inch vertical leap. Yet Smith’s pass was still too high for him.

The sloppy series ended with running back Travis Homer dropping a check-down throw over the middle, off his hands.

It wasn’t the first time Seattle’s remade defense has been better than the offense and out-played the two quarterbacks this camp.

It was just the most obvious time.

Coach Pete Carroll said last week third-down and red-zone scrimmages are where this quarterback competition might be decided.

“Third down and red zone are really big deals,” Carroll said. “That’s where the quarterbacks get challenged the most and it’s the most difficult. The defenses make it the hardest on you and that usually is a true indicator of how far someone is coming along.”

Neither Smith or Lock was coming along far on Monday. The defense was jumping up and down and celebrating in the quarterbacks’ faces like bullies on a grade-school playground.

“Today, I felt like they came out with a little more juice than we had,” Smith said of the defense beating the offense again. “You could see them talkin’ smack. They had a lot of energy.”

Lock, 8-13 as a starter in Denver over parts of three seasons before the Broncos sent him here in their trade for Wilson, didn’t fare much better than Smith in the red zone.

“This was the first day they got us,” Lock said.

Veteran wide receiver Marquise Goodwin continued his impressive Seahawks debut practices. He made a leaning catch and tapped the tops of his cleats just inside the sideline to make Lock’s first throw the offense’s first completion of the red-zone scrimmage.

Running back DeeJay Dallas and multiple offensive linemen then jumped at Lock’s hard snap count into a false-start penalty. Lock completed a dart of a short throw over the middle to Dallas, tightly guarded by linebacker Tanner Muse.

On third down, another hard count by Lock sent tight end Noah Fant into another false-start penalty. Then Lock threw incomplete toward Fant.

In a seven-on-seven drill against defensive backs and linebackers, Smith’s first pass was intercepted by linebacker Uchenna Nwosu. The Seahawks signed Nwosu as a free-agent from the Chargers this spring to rush the passer, not pick him off.

In the same drill Lock threw for a touchdown to Freddie Swain when safety Marquise Blair and rookie Coby Bryant lost Swain on a seam route between them. Lock had another touchdown pass later in that drill.

During 1st-and-10 scrimmaging, 11 on 11, outside linebacker Darrell Taylor got into a brief shoving match with a couple offensive players within a mass of guys following a play. Fant dropped an on-target throw from Lock with no one around him on a tight-end seam route.

So it went for the quarterbacks and the offense against the defense Monday.

In some ways it may have been good coach Pete Carroll wasn’t there to see it in person. He was home with mild symptoms, one day after testing positive for COVID-19.

“I told them they were hootin’ and hollerin’ today, and it hadn’t been that loud yet,” Lock said of the defense.

“It’s our job to come out the next day and change that.”

When will the competition begin?

So when will this quarterback situation actually become a competition?

Tuesday will be the sixth day of training camp, and the first practice in full pads. Up to now Smith has been where’s he been since the start of offseason practices in May through June: leading the starting offense.

Lock has had just two snaps in 11-on-11 scrimmaging with the starting offense since he arrived in March. Those two plays were at the end of Thursday’s second practice of training camp. He handed off to Rashaad Penny and completed a short pass in the right flat to Homer.

And that’s been it.

This competition to succeed Wilson won’t truly become one until coaches alternate Smith and Lock with the starters. That would give true, apples-to-apples assessments of the two QBs.

So far, the 24-year-old Lock is being protected by reserve linemen and throwing to reserve receivers such as Aaron Fuller and Cody Thompson, his targets during 1st-and-10 scrimmaging Monday. Fuller and Thompson have as many catches in NFL regular-season games, combined, as you do.

How can Lock win the starting job if he’s not getting the chance to work with the guys he’d be playing with in that job?

Lock paused and cleared his throat.

“You know, anytime that I’m standing behind the center and I get to call out a cadence that’s the most important rep of my life, right then and there,” he said. “I compete with everything I’ve got, every, single play. Doesn’t matter if it’s junior varsity at Bellevue High, I’m going to give it everything I’ve got for that single play right there.

“We’ll let time evolve and see where it goes from there. But every play is just as important to me, no matter when or where, ones or twos, Bellevue JV, it doesn’t matter.”

Not sure what Lock’s numbers were for Bellevue JV. He went to high school and college in Missouri.

Carroll and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron have each been asked, multiple times, if and when Smith and Lock will alternate snaps with the starting offense in this training camp.

“You’ll see. I’m not telling you that,” Carroll said.

Lock didn’t directly answer whether the coaches have explained to him the path to getting starting-offense snaps.

“I mean, of course every quarterback wants the ‘one’ reps. I think that process will take care of itself,” Lock said.

“I’m going to do everything I can with the ‘twos,’ leading those guys, letting them feel me every, single day, feeling like it’s the most important rep not only to me but to them, as well. That will help this team grow. ...

“I’m just going to try to keep doing everything I can with the ‘twos’ right now, and let time sort it all out.”

Lock said he knows Waldron’s playbook expertly now. He credits Waldron and quarterbacks coach Dave Canales for that.

“When I got here (for training camp) day one, I didn’t have any questions. I was ready to go,” Lock said.

“It’s a really fun offense to play in. I think Shane and Dave have done a really excellent job with me up in that quarterback room, being able to get me to come out and play good football soon, really fast, after playing in a whole other offense...it’s a testament to them as coaches.

“I’ve put some work in on the side, too, as well,” Lock said, chuckling. “But they’ve done an awesome job. I appreciate them walking me through everything since I’ve been here.”

Lock’s work with Metcalf

The familiarity gap with teammates Carroll and Waldron have cited as a reason Smith has been the number-one quarterback since May? That’s closed, Lock believes.

Smith and Lock this past weekend got Metcalf back on the field. The star wide receiver signed a $72 million contract with Seattle Friday. That ended his two-practice “hold in” from camp.

Smith worked out weeks before training camp in Los Angeles with Metcalf, as the wide receiver posted online on his Instagram account.

Lock worked out on his own with Metcalf, too, this spring into summer.

“Yeah, I did. We got together,” Lock said Monday. “I’m not a huge, show-that-I’m-working guy on social media. You just better assume that I am. Because I am.”

It’s just aside from position drills at the start of practices, Lock isn’t getting chances to throw to Metcalf in scrimmages against defenders.

Yet Lock says his first Seahawks camp has been enjoyable.

“One, it’s been really fun. This is an awesome environment to come practice in every day,” he said. “Didn’t really have music in Denver when we were practicing, except for warm-ups. Having it going all day, getting the juices flowin’ out here, it’s been an awesome experience so far. And I think we are playing good football right now. ...

“I feel like I’ve been doing that.”