Ex-Legion of Boom member blasts Seahawks fans for wanting to replace Geno Smith: "It really grinds my gears"

The Seattle Seahawks' quest to return to the playoffs fell just short, as they finished with the same record as NFC West champions Los Angeles Rams. But the Rams finished second in the division due to the strength of victory tiebreaker.

Swahawks fans were unsurprisingly frustrated about missing the postseason for the second year running. Many believe they wouldn't have if they had a better quarterback than Geno Smith.

However, Seahawks icon and a member of the vaunted 'Legion of Boom' defense, Richard Sherman rubbished suggestions that the veteran signal-caller had an underwhelming season. On his podcast, he defended the quarterback:

"Really cool for Geno to have 70% completion percentage, like, the incentives he had to hit were really high, and that's why I get frustrated when Seattle fans, like, 'Get rid of him. He s**ks.'

"Like, do you know how tough it is to complete 70% of your passes over a season in National Football League, when your offensive line has not played well the entire year, and you've been getting beat up week after week after week? It's very tough."

Sherman acknowledged that Smith's play in the red zone left a lot to be desired. However, he argued that the Seahawks' offensive line is also culpable for the team's poor play inside their opponents' 20-yard line. He added;

"It really grinds my gears when I hear fans complaining, like, man, we gotta replace him... I understand he struggled in the red zone this year. That can be fixed, that can be adjusted, that can be changed. You can do a lot worse than that under the circumstances he was under."

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Geno Smith's stats in the 2024 season

Geno Smith's 2024 campaign is difficult to analyze. The quarterback ranked fourth in the league in passing yards with 4,320 and his 70.4 completion rate ranked fifth among starters.

The Seahawks star was one of only four quarterbacks alongside Detroit Lions' Jared Goff, Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Baker Mayfield, and Cincinnati Bengals' Joe Burrow to throw for over 3,000 passing yards with at least a 70% completion rate.

Despite being among the most accurate passers in the league, he finished the season with 23 touchdown passes and 15 interceptions, which ranked third in the league behind Mayfield and Atlanta Falcons' Kirk Cousins. Both threw 16 picks.

Four of Smith's 15 interceptions came in the red zone and two inside the opponents' 10-yard line. His completion rate inside the 20-yard line was a dismal 53.70%. Inside the 10, it dropped to an inexplicable 26.92%.

Had Smith been more careful with his passing in the red zone, the Seahawks likely would have made the playoffs. However, without his stellar play, they wouldn't have been in a position to be one game shy of earning a postseason berth. It'd be unfair to label the veteran's season underwhelming, but it wasn't great either.