Geno Smith injury update: Seahawks’ Pete Carroll says QB will play vs. Titans in Week 16

The Seattle Seahawks dealt with a weird quarterback controversy this past week. Geno Smith, who was questionable to play in Week 15 due to a groin injury, was active for Seattle’s “Monday Night Football” matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles, but did not start. It was instead Drew Lock under center for the second game in a row, who threw a 29-yard game-winning touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba with 28 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to get Seattle back to .500.

Despite Smith’s injury and Lock’s success vs. Philly, head coach Pete Carroll said Smith will be back in the starting lineup this week when the Seahawks travel to Nashville to take on the Tennessee Titans.

“(Smith is) going to practice all this week and play in the game and away we go,” Carroll said, via Seattle Sports. ” … He might have done great (if he played on Monday), but at least we bought him another week and now he’s ready to go. He’ll have a full week of prep.”

As for what went down Monday night regarding the quarterback decision, Carroll said it came down to giving Smith as much time as possible to recover. 

“Geno was not able to go hard in practice during the week. Because he had tweaked a little bit of something the week before, we just wanted to save him for as long as we could and give him as much recovery time as possible,” Carroll said.

Carroll said Smith actually looked “great” in pregame Monday night, but ultimately, the trainers wanted to give the 2022 NFL Comeback Player of the Year  another week of rest. 

“It was a total gut-wrenching conversation because he looked better than we thought he would look in pregame,” Carroll said. “We just didn’t know what to expect.”

With Smith sidelined, Lock completed 22 of 33 passes for 208 yards and one touchdown in the 20-17 victory. The win improved the Seahawks to 7-7, and gave them the No. 8 seed in the NFC — one seed away from a wild card spot.