Technically, the Seattle Seahawks won last night’s stinkfest against the Chicago Bears, taking down the NFC North cellar-dwellars 6-3 on their home field. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have anything to celebrate, though. In addition to being the worst single game of the entire 2024 NFL season, we witnessed Geno Smith’s worst performance since becoming Seattle’s starting quarterback and a near-total collapse of playcalling by offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb.
At least Seahawks fans can rest easy knowing that head coach Mike Macdonald knows what he’s doing on defense, even if they couldn’t force a turnover to save their lives. Seattle’s fundamentally-solid D got some very sharp games on Thursday night and their specialists came through when they needed it. Let’s see what we can learn from this week’s Pro Football Focus grades for the Seahawks.
Geno Smith flunks
While he hasn’t exactly been his best for a while now, Geno Smith looked totally out of sorts against a tough Chicago defense last night. While he technically didn’t turn the ball over, it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Bears linebacker Tremaine Edmunds dropped what should have been an easy interception to end the Seahawks’ first drive and Smith also fumbled twice. For his efforts Smith got a 45.1 overall grade, the worst for any starter on offense this week. Only tight end Pharaoh Brown (27.3 overall) got a worse mark.
Abe Lucas paces offense
The interior offensive line continues to be a total dumpster fire, but Seattle’s tackles had a strong game, especially Abe Lucas. He earned solid grades in pass blocking (76.5) and run blocking (79.1) from PFF this week and his knee did not appear to be bothering him. Lucas got a 79.2 overall grade, which was the highest for the Seahawks offense this week.
Leonard Williams leads defense
Since the 2023 midseason trade that brought him over from the New York Giants, Seattle’s best defender has been defensive end Leonard Williams. That was the case once again last night, as Big Cat was extremely disruptive against a hopeless Bears offensive line. Williams posted two sacks, three tackles for a loss and four quarterback hits. For his part, Williams earned an 81.1 overall grade from PFF, the highest on defense.
Still no love for Ernest Jones
Usually we trust PFF’s grades to match our eyeball test, but that’s not always the case. One big exception throughout the 2024 season has been their evaluation of off-ball linebackers, which seems to be consistently unfair – especially for middle linebacker Ernest Jones. This week PFF gave Jones another poor grade, with a 44.2 in coverage and a 50.2 in tackling bringing down his overall score to 55.2, the third-lowest for Seattle’s defense this week. Whatever standard they are using to evaluatate inside linebackers, it’s not working.
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