The Seattle Seahawks signed veteran quarterback Geno Smith to a three-year contract extension last offseason. That might make it seem like they are committed to him as their QB1 for the foreseeable future. However, Smith’s deal is structured in such a way that it’s not too hard for the team to get out at the end of this season. Given the way Smith has struggled since Week 6 (sound familiar?) they might want to consider a reset at the game’s most important position.
The best place to do so will be in the NFL draft, where they just missed out on a couple of excellent young prospects last year in C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson. This year the Seahawks won’t have a top-10 pick, so it’ll be much more difficult to land one of the top QBs in the upcoming draft class. Then again, the 2024 crop is much deeper than last year’s, which could make it possible to land a franchise QB late in the first round, or even on Day 2 or 3, depending on how things play out.
In our first mock draft of the year we did last weekend, we had the Seahawks rolling the dice on South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler, who just declared for the draft. We had them taking Rattler in the fourth round, but a new mock draft from Dane Brugler at the Athletic has Seattle taking a quarterback much earlier.
He has the Seahawks selecting Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy at No. 22 overall, currently the team’s first-round pick.
“McCarthy is a polarizing prospect. He has all the tools, and NFL coaches will love the intangibles, but evaluators want to see him put the offense on his back and take over games. It’s not that he can’t, it’s that he hasn’t really needed to given Michigan’s play style and schedule. General manager John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll see Seattle as a win-now team, but at some point, they will invest in a young quarterback to develop.”
McCarthy (6-foot-3, 197 pounds) has relatively solid numbers for a college quarterback. In 37 games he’s completed 67.9% of his passes, totaling 5,718 yards, 46 touchdowns, 11 interceptions and a 163.5 QB rating.
Stats can be deceiving, though. Let’s see what the tape has to say…
McCarthy vs. Nebraska
McCarthy vs. Rutgers
McCarthy vs. Penn State
McCarthy vs. TCU
McCarthy vs. Illinois
McCarthy vs. Ohio State
McCarthy vs. Bowling Green
McCarthy vs. Purdue
McCarthy vs. UNLV
Analysis
We don’t hate McCarthy as a prospect. However, we’d prefer if the team waited to roll the dice on a quarterback until after the first round – unless they plan to trade up for one of the top-tier prospects. Most likely they’ll finish the season picking somewhere in the mid-teens, making a move up easier than it appears right now.
If you prefer to see McCarthy play live, Michigan will be facing Iowa in the Big Ten Championship on Saturday night.
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