Moyer: One way Seahawks can open pass game up more for Geno

It’s hard to come up with complaints about the Seahawks’ offense this season.

What Robert Turbin is looking for Seahawks to do coming out of bye

A big reason Seattle is 6-4 and tied for the NFC West lead with the San Francisco 49ers is how well offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s system has operated in the first year without Russell Wilson, with a lot of things working out that maybe weren’t expected.

Running back Kenneth Walker III is having a stellar rookie season. So are offensive tackles Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas, who have fit right in on the Seahawks’ O-line. And of course there’s the play of quarterback Geno Smith, who has been a revelation.

Part of Smith’s incredible resurgence, though, is masking one thing that the Hawks could stand to improve. That’s what Paul Moyer, a former Seahawks safety and assistant coach who now serves as an analyst on the Seahawks Radio Network pregame and postgame show, said when he joined Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob on Monday.

Asked by guest co-host Robert Turbin (also a Seahawks radio pregame/postgame analyst) if Seattle needed to shore up anything for the stretch run, Moyer pointed to the offensive line in front of Smith.

“There’s one part that I think is going unnoticed, and our protection on offense isn’t as good as people think it is,” Moyer said. “It’s not bad, but I’ll tell you what, Geno bails us out a bunch.”

Smith has taken 24 sacks in 10 games this year, an average of 2.4 per game, which is a slight improvement over the 2.7 sacks the Seahawks allowed per game in 2021. The 24 sacks taken ranks in the middle of the pack (tied for 14th) among NFL teams. Moyer sees that as an area where they could grow, and not just to limit sacks but because it could open up more in the passing game for Seattle, which has star wide receivers DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett as Smith’s top targets.

“He is so quick with the ball,” Moyer said of Smith. “Now there’s times when the pocket collapses, Geno will take a sack or two – I can live with those, he’s not taking a lot of sacks. But he’s bailing us out a lot, and for us to be able to push the ball downfield on some good teams like we’ll be playing coming up here with San Francisco down the road (on Thursday, Dec. 15), we’ve got to shore up some of those protection things and not let anything leak. Because if you give Geno time, Geno senses that. He will hold the ball and let the plays extend. If (the pocket) collapses quick, he also knows how to get rid of it really quick.”

Because for as much as the Seahawks have beaten the outside expectations for them this season, Moyer said, “if we want to be all we can be in the passing game, we’ve got to clean up the protection a little bit.”

You can listen to the full conversation between Moyer, Turbin and Bob Stelton in the podcast at this link or in the player below.

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