The best of the bank (daily newspaper Junge Welt)

The US statistics site Five Thirty Eight is often used to classify the playoff chances of teams in the National Football League (NFL), their forecasting model is considered relatively reliable. For the Seattle Seahawks, the site claims a 30 percent chance of advancing to the knockout stages following Friday’s 1:21 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. With three games to go before the end of the regular season, the chances are not particularly good. Nevertheless, they are exactly 30 percent higher than most experts would have estimated before the current season.

Because with the 2014 Super Bowl winner, the signs were pointing to change. The Seahawks gave their star quarterback Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos in March. In return, they got some draft picks (additional rights to sign young talent), but also quarterback Drew Lock, among others. During pre-season, coach Pete Carroll called out a duel between Lock and previous Wilson replacement Eugene Cyril “Geno” Smith. Smith has been playing in the NFL since 2013 but has not made it to any of his four teams to date. Competitor Lock has also not yet provided evidence of being a viable NFL player. “Everything about the Seahawks and their quarterback situation just makes me sad,” said the renowned sports journalist Adam Schein, assessing the situation in August.

At the beginning of November, just three months later, the Seahawks had a record of six wins and only three losses. The main reason for this surprising turn of events: Smith, who had previously prevailed in the “most embarrassing quarterback duel of all time” (Schein quote), suddenly played big. The 32-year-old used his arm, which has always been strong, for precise passes and thus initially directed an effective offensive, which has great talents in receivers Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf. After his pick as a starter, Smith said it was just the beginning: “I’m ready to go out there and win 17+ games.” Indeed, he put on performances that put him as one of the best playmakers in the NFL right now. So he is in the quarterback ranking of ESPN currently in fifth place, expert Steven Ruiz from the online portal The Ringer still leads him to ninth place. From stand-in to top ten, the evolution of Geno Smith was one of this season’s stories.

Ruiz, however, sees the subject a little less romantically: “I find the story of Geno Smith showing these achievements after waiting eight years for his chance to be anything but heartwarming,” he said on Twitter in September. The explanation: “It’s sad that he wasted his best years on the benches while guys like Brock Osweiler or Blake Bortles, who were never better than him, bagged big contracts.” Osweiler and Bortles are both white, while Smith is black . Ruiz’s thesis: The NFL doesn’t allow black quarterbacks to be average. You would always have to bring in special achievements in order to obtain the coveted starter posts.

Meanwhile, the hype surrounding Smith has cooled somewhat. The Seahawks have lost four of their last five games. Their record of seven wins and seven losses will probably not be enough for the playoffs. Seattle’s defense is among the weakest in the league. So it’s not Smith’s fault. With his performances, he lifted an underperforming team to a level that was previously not possible. He would probably be entitled to a well-endowed contract. In any case, the one with the Seahawks expires after this season.