There's certainly no shortage of doubters for Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith as he attempts to lead his team even further in the playoffs for 2023. I believe he's already proven he's got what it takes. Just compare his career to other so-called one-year wonders, and you'll agree.
Yes, Geno Smith knows he has his doubters, and he's okay with that. In fact, he revels in it. Despite his success last season, he's taking nothing for granted this year. Despite his shiny new three-year contract, Smith said he's taking on the challenges of the NFL year by year. That's excellent news for the Seahawks (and for us 12s, of course). However, if we look deeper, we can see even better reasons to believe that Number 7 will have the Hawks back in the playoffs
Geno Smith wasn't exactly the first quarterback to struggle early in his career, then nail the comeback in a big way. For example, there have been several comparisons made between Smith and Rich Gannon. Like Smith, Gannon saw his career fizzle over several years with a couple of teams and then staged a sweet comeback after years in the wilderness. But the comparison doesn't really hold up, as we're about to see.
Seahawks QB Geno Smith had a comeback like no other
Let's make that comparison of Gannon and Smith, then move on to better comparisons. Although as you'll see, there really isn't one that truly fits. Smith was drafted in the second round by the Jets, the 39th overall pick in 2013. That's not that high, true, but it was an awful year for quarterbacks. E. J. Manuel was the only QB drafted ahead of Geno, while the other luminaries taken that year include Matt Barkley and Mike Glennon. Do you want to know how bad? Despite his late jump to the upper echelon of the league, Smith has more career passing yards than the number two and three QBs combined, and nearly as many touchdowns. With a good 2023, he'll pass all other 2013 draftees combined in every significant career stat. So yeah, it was a lousy year for QBs.
Sorry, I was supposed to be talking about Seahawks. He was taken by the Patriots in the fourth round of 1987. It wasn't exactly the 1983 draft, but with Vinny Testaeverde, Steve Beuerlein, and Jim Harbaugh, it had a lot more talent than Smith's class. So Gannon had a lot less pressure on him from the start than Smith. In fact, there was no pressure on Gannon, as New England planned to covert him to a running back or receiver. Apparently, they saw him as the 1987 model of Taysom Hill. Thankfully Gannon refused the position switch and was traded to the Vikings. Otherwise, he would have eventually shredded the Seahawks' defense at some point. We've had enough of those slash guys, thanks.
So Gannon rode the bench for his first three seasons in Minnesota and had ample time to adjust to the league, unlike Smith. Geno Smith was the starter in New York from game one and faced even more pressure from the fans and the media than he did from the Pats or Bills. Gannon didn't get his first start until year four and was never very good in Minnesota. His best passer rating was just 81.5; he only had 16 TDs in his best season and matched it with 16 INTs the same year. Meanwhile, Smith was relegated to the bench in year three. Yes, he was recovering from a broken jaw in 2015, but a return to full health didn't produce a return to the starting lineup. In his two seasons as the Jets start, Smith threw 25 TDs vs 34 INTs, while his best passer rating was just 77.5. Gannon had years to prepare and still failed, while Smith was pressed into duty too soon, and found the bench, just like Gannon.
Both teams gave up on their quarterbacks. Minnesota traded Gannon to Washington prior to the 1993 season. He played poorly in his four starts, going 1-3 with three touchdowns and seven picks, then missed all of the 1994 season with shoulder surgery. Gannon landed with the Chiefs in 1995 but was strictly a backup that year. Meanwhile, Smith barely escaped the bench in 2016, his last with the Jets, only to miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. He wound up with the Giants in 2017, got one start, and was promptly sent back to the bench.
Geno Smith never got the breaks that Rich Gannon had
Their careers took major departures again at this point. Gannon spent four seasons in Kansas City, splitting time as the starter in his final two years with the Chiefs. He was 5-1 in 1997 but just 5-5 in 1998. That makes a handy 16 game season, so let's see what he did. Obviously, he was 10-6, which is pretty good, right? Unfortunately, he only threw 17 TDs vs 10 INTs. He connected on 304 of 529 passes for a 57 percent completion rate, and a total of 3,449 yards. The yardage is decent, as that would have ranked him eighth in 1998, but the TDs would rank him just 17th. That happens to be Gannon's actual ranking for passer rating in 1998, 17th, at 80.1. He was as mediocre as you can be. That isn't a bad thing, but it typically doesn't win titles, either.
While Gannon was getting work at this stage of his career - not great work, but work - Smith was still languishing on the bench. After his lackluster season with the Giants, he moved on to the Chargers. As with New York, where he rode the pine behind Eli Manning, he was stuck behind another clear start in San Diego, in this case, Philip Rivers who had his final Pro Bowl season. Maybe if Geno Smith had the luck of Gannon and found himself on a team with the recent equivalent of Elvis Grbac, he would have gotten a chance to prove himself sooner. You know, someone like Mike Glennon. Yeah, we'll get to him.
Gannon finally found a system that worked for him when he landed with the Raiders in 1999. He went from the wild offensive schemes of Marty Schottenheimer - we know all about those, don't we, 12s - to the Raiders more wide-open offense. This is where the similarity finally hits. Gannon was made the starter in Oakland, gave their offense a huge boost, and made the Pro Bowl. In fact, Gannon made the Pro Bowl for four straight seasons.
In that respect, I do see a parallel between Rich Gannon and Geno Smith. Once he had a system that allowed him to flourish, Gannon took full advantage of it, just as Smith did last year for the Seahawks. The difference is Gannon had multiple chances to prove he was the guy and whiffed on every one of them until he landed in Oakland.
Gannon spent three seasons as an understudy with the Vikings yet failed to take the reins despite three seasons as the starter. His single season in Washington was an anomaly, but he had four years in Kansas City and struggled to unseat Elvis Grbac, for the love of all that is holy. At age 34, he finally got it together. Yes, he earned his Pro Bowl nods. He threw at least 24 TDs in all four seasons, never more than 14 picks, never less than 3400 yards, and his passer rating was over 90 in his last three Pro Bowl seasons.
Compare that to Geno Smith, who was thrown to the wolves in New York by Rex Ryan, a coach who spent as little time with the offense as any head coach in history. The OC was Marty Mornhinweg, who built his reputation on the success of the 49ers offense of the late 90s. But come on, is it that hard when Steve Young is your QB? He got credit as the OC in Philadelphia after that, but Andy Reid was the head coach. Who do you think was running that offense? Geno Smith never had a chance in New York. After that, he sat behind three straight Hall of Fame quarterbacks. Rich Gannon competed against Wade Wilson, Elvis Grbac, and Bobby Hoying. I'm pretty sure I could get some starts in there.
We've got better comparisons for Geno - and they're not close, either
Okay, so Rich Gannon took 12 seasons to beat out a bunch of stiffs, so I think we can stop those comparisons. Okay, Wade Wilson wasn't a stiff, but he wasn't exactly Russell Wilson, either. So now we're on to a few other comparisons. I swear, I'll be quick. Remember that guy Mike Glennon I mentioned, way back in chapter three? He had a decent rookie season, better than Smith, in fact. He wasn't able to continue his decent start, and still somehow hung on for eight seasons.
Tommy Maddox is a better comparison for Smith than either Gannon or Glennon. He was taken in the first round by the Broncos in 1992 and got four starts as a rookie, subbing for an injured John Elway. After two seasons of futility, he was traded to the Rams, who recognized his third-string talent and released him after the season. He landed with the Giants and managed to throw three picks and lose a fumble in just 26 passing attempts. For some reason, the Giants hung on to him into 1996, but after five more fumbles and another interception in two preseason games, even they had had enough.
But first-round picks get nearly unlimited chances. That, and Dan Reeves like the kid a lot. Having coached him in Denver and New York, when Reeves took over the Falcons in 1997, he called Maddox for another shot. As before, the preseason was too much for him, and Maddox was finally out of football. He sold insurance for a couple of years, then played in the Arena League in 2000 and the XFL in 2001. He was even named the XFL League MVP, which shows you how awful that league was.
Or maybe he had finally figured football out. After the XFL sunk like the Titanic, the Steelers brought Maddox aboard. He threw a few passes backing up Kordell Stewart - nine, in fact - but was really needed in 2002. Stewart was benched, and somehow, Tommy Maddox finally looked like a first-round pick. He got 11 starts, leading Pittsburgh to a very respectable 7-3-1 record in his outings. He threw 20 TDs and 16 picks - not great, but not hideous, either. On the strength of his record - and undoubtedly the fact he'd been out of the league for four years before his cup of coffee in 2001 - Maddox won the Comeback Player of the Year award.
And that's the strongest comparison with Geno Smith. Maddox returned to form in 2003, He wasn't terrible, but he shouldn't have gotten all 16 starts, either. He threw for over 3400 yards, which is nice, but had 18 touchdowns and 17 picks. His passer rating dropped from 2002's serviceable 85. 2 to 75.3. Remarkably he cut his fumbles from eight to five, but he cut his wins too, as the Steelers slumped to 6-10 with Maddox as their starter.
Now compare Maddox to Geno Smith. Smith looked solid in relief of Russell Wilson in 2021. Yeah, yeah, I know he just went 1-2, but we all know he also outplayed Russ when he stepped in vs the Rams. 95 passes is a small sample, but it's not that small. I'll take five scores vs one pick and a 103. 0 passer rating any day. And of course we know what Geno did last season. Yes, he cooled off in the second half. Five of his eleven interceptions came in the final five games, and after leading the league in passer rating much of the season, he only broke 100 once in those final five contests.
But unlike Gannon, Glennon, Maddox, or anyone else you care to throw out for a comparison, Smith wasn't just okay last season, he was great. Unlike Gannon, he didn't fail for a dozen years; he simply never really got an opportunity to prove what he could do after his sophomore season. He didn't ride on a decent rookie season for a decade like Glennon, or play himself out of the league like Maddox and catch fire for one decent year. The one similarity I do see between Gannon and Smith is this: once he found his groove in Oakland, Gannon was very, very good. He started every game for four straight seasons, made the Pro Bowl every year, and won the league MVP in that fourth year. Geno Smith probably has a tighter timetable, but he's well ahead of that pace.