Seahawks QB Geno Smith Entering Uncharted Waters Amid Historic, MVP-Worthy Season
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Since winning the team's quarterback battle three months ago, Geno Smith has dazzled under center for the Seahawks, completing north of 70 percent of his passes while leading a young, upstart franchise and writing one of the most unlikely NFL fairy tales in recent memory in the process.
But for all of the accomplishments Smith had achieved in the first 12 weeks of the season thriving in Russell Wilson's former stead, the veteran quarterback still had one major box left unchecked heading into Sunday's divisional road game against the Los Angeles Rams. Despite leading Seattle to a surprising 6-5 start, he had yet to prove he could orchestrate a game-winning drive with the game on the line inside two minutes to play. In fact, he hadn't led such a drive since 2014 when he was in his second season with the New York Jets.
Fortunately for Smith, after guiding the Seahawks to a 27-23 win at SoFi Stadium, his few remaining critics won't be able to lean on that argument anymore when debating his place among the league's premier quarterbacks.
With Seattle trailing by three with under three minutes left to play, Smith calmly worked his magic from the pocket, completing five of his first eight passes to drive his team inside the opposing 10-yard line. After coming up short against the Falcons, Saints, and Raiders earlier this year and failing to close out close games in three starts last season, the poised veteran signal caller finally delivered the signature moment his resume sorely lacked, rolling out to his right and firing a dart to DK Metcalf for an eight-yard touchdown.
"As we continue on late into the season, you want to show improvement and I think that's what it showed, a lot of grit, determination," Smith said of Seattle's game-winning drive on Sunday. "You [saw] a bunch of different guys made plays, made catches and the offensive line did a great job. And so, it's something that we have to have, the games are going to come down to that in the NFL. That's what the playoff games are going to feel like and it was real good to get a win.”
With Smith's incredible story still being written, coach Pete Carroll couldn't have been happier to see another exciting chapter unfold in front of everyone's eyes as his heroics improved the Seahawks to 7-5 on the season.
“He was incredible down the stretch," Carroll gushed. "I wish you guys could see how poised he is and how clear he is to communicate with, how calm he is in the big moments and all. He’s just on it and he has to be to be performing the way he's performing so consistently for so long now. And really, it’s a remarkable statement that he's making about who he is and what he is all about. And I’m just proud as heck of him.”
At this stage, Smith isn't just an intriguing curiosity orchestrating Shane Waldron's offense. He isn't a fraud whose play will inevitably fall back to Earth. And, after carving up the Rams for a career-high 367 passing yards with a trio of touchdowns, calling him a dark horse MVP candidate borders on being defamatory.
Putting Smith's numbers in perspective, by throwing three touchdowns in the Seahawks win on Sunday, he has tossed at least two touchdown passes in 10 of his 12 starts in 2022. That's more than any other quarterback in the NFL, including MVP front-runners Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. He's also the only player in the league who has posted at least a 64 percent completion rate and 80.0 passer rating in each of his 12 starts this season, becoming the second player in NFL history to achieve that feat in a single season.
Statistically, Smith ranks first in the NFL in completion rate (72.7), second in passer rating (108.7), third in touchdown passes (22), and fifth in passing yards (3,169). In advanced metrics, according to Next Gen Stats, he leads the league with a 6.6 percent completion percentage above expectation, nearly two percent ahead of Dak Prescott. According to Pro Football Focus, he ranks third in big time throws (25) and his 99.7 grade on passes of 20-plus yards ranks first.
As if those numbers aren't impressive enough in present context alone, Smith's MVP candidacy should be furthered buoyed by the fact he's on pace to produce a stat line that has only been matched once previously.
If Smith maintains his current production over Seattle's final five games of the 2022 season, he will finish with 4,489 passing yards, 31 touchdown passes, and a 72.7 percent completion rate. Only one other quarterback - Drew Brees in 2011 - has posted such a ridiculous stat line in a single season. The future Hall of Famer finished with 5,476 yards, 46 touchdowns, and a 71.2 percent completion rate in 16 starts.
Though Smith doesn't have a fighting chance to match Brees' touchdown and yardage totals with five weeks left to play, he's on pace to throw 555 passes, or more than 100 fewer than Brees did in 2011. He also is more than a full percent ahead in terms of accuracy. Setting a new bar for efficiency at the most difficult position in sports, he has a legitimate chance to turn in one of the best individual seasons by a passer in NFL history when everything is said and done.
Through it all, Smith continues to refuse to make this special season in the Pacific Northwest about him. After biding his time as a backup for three different teams over a seven-year span, while his theatrics engineering the offense have been critical to their success, his focus remains on helping the Seahawks punch a ticket to the playoffs that nobody outside of the organization saw coming rather than dwelling on the individual recognition he most certainly has earned.
In time, with the first of what he hopes will be many game-winning drives under his belt, Smith will eventually be able to negotiate a new contract on the merits of his unprecedented success as an unlikely MVP candidate. In a move few could have saw coming several months ago, on the heels of a truly historic season, the Seahawks should be sprinting to the table ready to open up the checkbook for a player who looks the part of an elite franchise quarterback.
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