MVP Candidate: Seahawks QB Geno Smith 'Didn't Just Get This Good in One Offseason'

On the heels of winning NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors, Geno Smith credited his steadfast belief in his abilities and lessons learned in seven years as a backup for propelling him to a breakout year replacing Russell Wilson under center for the Seattle Seahawks.

RENTON, Wash. - After waiting seven long years for his opportunity to start again, Geno Smith has unexpectedly enjoyed a remarkable season orchestrating the Seahawks offense and leading the team to a surprising 5-3 start.

Near the top of the NFL in several key categories, including leading the league with a 72.7 percent completion rate and ranking third in passer rating behind Tua Tagovailoa and Patrick Mahomes, Smith has been viewed by sports books as a front-runner for Comeback Player of the Year honors. And, after being named NFC Offensive Player of the Month for October on Thursday, the veteran quarterback has even jumped into the MVP conversation.

Even Smith's most ardent supporters, including coach Pete Carroll, couldn't have foreseen the former West Virginia thriving in coordinator Shane Waldron's offense in the way he has through the first eight weeks. But if there is anyone who isn't surprised by his immense success, it's the signal caller himself, who has consistently reflected much of the individual attention being cast on him back towards the team.

"I just think it's me having a chance to play now," Smith told reporters prior to Thursday's practice. "The attention and all that stuff, I'm not really feeling it. I've just been focused on what I'm doing inside this building. But I think it's more so just people seeing me play. I haven't played in a bunch of years aside from preseason. And I think people are now getting the chance to see me play in this offense with these type of players and I think it's more so just all of us doing well, more than just myself."

Drafted in the second round by the Jets in 2013, Smith beat out Mark Sanchez to become an immediate starter. But while he flashed as a rookie leading five game-winning drives to help his team post a respectable 8-8 record, he struggled with accuracy and turnovers, completing under 56 percent of his passes while throwing 21 interceptions compared to only 12 touchdowns in 16 starts.

In his ensuing sophomore season, despite Smith's overall numbers improving in regard to completion rate and cutting down on turnovers, New York bottomed out with a last place finish in the NFC East. Starting 13 games under center, the Jets won only three of those games, casting doubts about his viability as a franchise quarterback.

After suffering a broken jaw in a locker room fight with a teammate, Smith never regained the starting job as veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick led the Jets to an unexpected 10-6 season. When he briefly returned to the starting lineup in 2016, he suffered a season-ending torn ACL and the organization opted not to re-sign him.

Without a legitimate starting opportunity presented to him, Smith bounced around with the Giants and Chargers in 2017 and 2018, throwing a grand total of 40 passes while stuck behind established veterans in Eli Manning and Philip Rivers. He then made his way to the Pacific Northwest to join the Seahawks before the 2019 season, once again joining a team with an established star quarterback in Russell Wilson. In his first two seasons with the franchise, he threw just five passes.

Given the circumstances, many quarterbacks would have either folded being content with being a backup for the remainder of their careers or walk away from the game entirely. But that wasn't the case with Smith, whose hard work behind the scenes and confidence in his own ability carried him through the tough times.

"Being in the NFL, it's a day to day thing. You gotta be on it every single day. A lot of people wish they were in this position and I'm grateful to have worked myself into this position," Smith remarked. "Knowing who I am, I'm very set in who I am, I know exactly who I am and what I can do. And so I've never bought into the narratives that have been out there. I didn't just get this good over the course of one offseason. So I think that's mostly a narrative and a lot of this stuff is media driven."

After biding his time for more than half a decade waiting for a shot to start, Wilson suffered a torn tendon in his right middle finger when his throwing hand collided with the helmet of Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald, opening the door for Smith to see his first extended action since 2015.

Though Seattle lost three of the four games Smith played in, including close losses to the Steelers and Saints and a comeback falling short against the Rams, the veteran impressed Carroll and his teammates completing almost 70 percent of his passes and throwing five touchdowns compared to just one interception. While he may not have known it at the time, his performance set the stage for him to take the reins as the team's new starting quarterback after Wilson was traded to the Broncos in March.

While he first had to beat out Drew Lock, who arrived as part of the Wilson trade, Smith stayed in the driver's seat from the start of OTAs all the way through the end of the preseason. With the quarterback competition never truly coming to fruition, Carroll named him Week 1 starter after the preseason finale in Dallas and he hasn't looked back since, throwing 13 touchdowns and just three picks while engineering the fourth-best scoring offense in the NFL.

Looking back on his journey and what he's now achieving starring for the upstart Seahawks, Smith continues to say all the right things putting the team ahead of the individual. As long as the team continues to win games, any awards or recognition he receives will be viewed as a cherry on top.

With that said, thanks in part to support from former coaches and teammates who had his best interest in mind and helped him push forward when things didn't go as planned, Smith's belief in his talents has never wavered along the way. That quiet confidence coupled with determination and resolve paved the way for him to pen his storybook season thus far and put Seattle in a position to shock the world as contender in the wide-open NFC.

"When it comes down to me, people where I'm from know who I am. West Virginia, I just got inducted into the College [Football] Hall of Fame. So people in college football know who I am. New York Jets as well, Giants, Chargers, in Seattle. So people have continued to let me know that you just keep working hard, and things will happen for you. And so that's what I did."

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