'Everything to Prove': Seattle Seahawks QB Geno Smith Ready to Embrace New Challenges

Between learning a new offense from a new coaching staff and battling a new competitor at quarterback, Geno Smith eagerly awaits a 2024 season full of change with the Seattle Seahawks.

Nov 23, 2023; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith (7) passes against / Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

RENTON, Wash. - Now entering his 11th NFL season, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith has had to deal with no shortage of changes this offseason, including the departure of beloved coach Pete Carroll and fellow quarterback Drew Lock.

Luckily for Smith, however, overcoming obstacles has been a prevailing theme throughout the veteran signal caller's career. Playing for a new coach won't be foreign to him, as he had six different head coaches in his first seven NFL seasons with the Jets, Giants, Los Angeles Chargers, and Seahawks, and he guaranteed Mike Macdonald and his staff won't see anything different from him. As always, he welcomes the grind and even with him already being declared the starter, he looks forward to competing against new backup Sam Howell with the goal of bringing out his best.

"New coaching staff, old coaching staff, I got everything to prove," Smith told reporters following Wednesday's offseason workout. "That's every day, that's the way I wake up every day. I'm competing with Sam [Howell]. I know he's competing with me. I'm going to compete my butt off. I'm competing with everybody in this building to be the best that I can be. I really don't approach it any other way."

Though he threw 10 fewer touchdowns last season, Geno Smith still shined in clutch moments with five game-winning drives for the Seahawks. / Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Enjoying a career renaissance in Seattle, Smith has been one of the NFL's best stories over the past two seasons. Replacing legendary quarterback Russell Wilson, he finished fourth in the NFL with 30 touchdown passes and led the league in completion percentage while rallying the Seahawks to a playoff spot in 2022, culminating the breakthrough season with a Comeback Player of the Year award. Even with his numbers dipping last year, he tied for the league lead with five game-winning drives, showcasing his clutch gene on numerous occasions.

Instrumental to Smith's success, Carroll opened the door for the veteran quarterback to revive his career, giving the former second-round pick out of West Virginia a jolt of confidence following a rough tenure with the Jets and brief backup gigs elsewhere. After only throwing five passes in his first two seasons with the team, an injury to Wilson thrust him into the starting lineup for three games in 2022, and while the Seahawks only won one of those games, he played well in his audition with five touchdowns and only one interception.

Providing him the chance to compete against Lock to replace Wilson the following spring, it's hard to know where Smith would be without Carroll's support and guidance, which made seeing his mentor forced out in January a brutal day.

"That day is a day I'll probably remember forever, just because of how things happened for me here," Smith remarked. "Obviously, coach Carroll is a big influence on my career, helped me out a bunch when I came to this organization. Really helped me, thrust me into the spotlight that I'm in now. For me, it was kind of a terrible moment to see someone that I love so much, having to part ways with him. That's the way of the NFL. That's the way things go. Very excited for what we have here now and just the direction we're heading in."

Though Smith will obviously miss Carroll's exuberant presence on the practice field and in meeting rooms, he has been impressed by Macdonald thus far. Before speaking with his new coach for the first time, the veteran quarterback already had a strong understanding of what to expect based on personal experience, as Macdonald's swarming Ravens defense held him to under a 50 percent completion rate and no touchdowns in a 37-3 blowout in Baltimore last season.

With the offseason program just kicking off on Monday and players just starting to dig into new playbooks, there's a long way to go before the real bullets start flying in September. But per Smith, the first-time head coach aced his first important task, sharing his vision and goals for the franchise earlier this week.

"He's got a plan," Smith said. "He already laid it out for us as a team and it's our job to help him and his job to help us get there. Right now, like I said, we're just in the beginning of all this, but when we played him last year with the Ravens, you could tell how his scheme worked and just how good they were as a defense last year. How they excelled as a defense. We know the type of scheme that he has, but also the type of leadership that he brings, the type of man that he is, and overall just being a great coach. That's something we look forward to."

Over the next several weeks, with on-field drills set to begin in Phase Two of the offseason program later this month, Smith will be working diligently to master new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb's system, which he characterized as "very complex." Far from an easy process, the veteran quarterback and his teammates will have to learn new terminology and pass protection schemes among other things, taking what they've learned in meetings to the field.

At this stage, Smith didn't have many specifics to offer on Grubb's scheme with the Seahawks just starting their journey learning the offense, simply acknowledging his confidence as a play caller. To aid his transition, he has made sure to watch plenty of Washington Huskies film, as Grubb orchestrated one of the nation's most explosive offenses over the past two years at Montlake with quarterback Michael Penix Jr. running the show, helping guide the team to a berth in the National Championship game in January.

Seeing the immense success Macdonald and Grubb had at their previous stops and the confidence they have in their respective schemes, Smith believes in the direction the Seahawks are trending. After winning nine games each of the past two seasons, he's encouraged by how players have responded to the new staff so far and he's eager to see if the new regime can lead the franchise to greater heights in quick fashion.

"No matter who the coach is, no matter who's leading this thing, you gotta buy in. And all the guys have got to buy in and that's the key message. Right now, I feel like that's what's happening."