Seattle Seahawks quarterback battle continues as head coach Pete Carroll pushes back decision
The Pacific Northwest is no closer to having a starting quarterback after trading away Russell Wilson in the offseason.
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll did not commit to a timeline to name the season’s starter when asked by reporters.
Seattle will play the Dallas Cowboys on Friday in the last game of their preseason before an opener against Wilson and his new team, the Denver Broncos.
Carroll suggested last year’s backup Geno Smith had the edge over newcomer Drew Lock, even before Lock went down with COVID-19 last Tuesday.
Seattle has a tough choice between Drew Lock (2) and Geno Smith (7) for their starting QB
The coach did not indicate who would start on Friday, but said Lock would see plenty of snaps.
‘I’m wide open for whatever happens,’ Carroll said.
‘Geno’s been the guy in the lead position the whole time, and I’ve protected that thought throughout. He’s done a really nice job. He’s been very consistent.
‘So we’ll just see what happens. There’s two more weeks of practice, too, after this. I had a set thought on what we would do with the timeline but that got disrupted, so we’re going to use all the time we need.’
Smith has been taking most of the snaps with the first team, starting mock games and a preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Geno Smith has been taking most of the reps with the first team offense Seattle will run
Lock recently returned to practice after clearing COVID protocols, which threw a wrench into Carroll’s plans to announce a starter.
‘Today’s a really big day for me to find out what they look like,’ Carroll said before practice.
‘A guy’s coming back from COVID. He made it back two days ago, did fine, made it through yesterday in all the walk-through stuff, did fine. Let’s see how he goes today and see we’ll see where it fits.
‘But I’m not closing the book on anybody competing for their spots. We have two enormous weeks coming up: The finish of this one, [then] next week is a huge week for us and then we come back with another full week and an extra day. So we’ve got a lot of time here to work it out.’
Coach Pete Carroll has not ruled Drew Lock out of the QB race, despite a COVID diagnosis
