Geno Smith spent six years with the Seattle Seahawks, first as a backup to Russell Wilson and later as the franchise’s starting quarterback. He strung together a bevy of accomplishments in his three seasons atop the depth chart, reaching the playoffs once, earning a pair of Pro Bowl nods and in 2022 winning the AP Comeback Player of the Year award. Something was always missing, though.
Smith’s fresh start this year with the Las Vegas Raiders gave him a fresh perspective as the team’s hand-picked starter. The Raiders brought him to town with the intention of making him their guy. That was something he never experienced in Seattle given his ascent from a backup job.
“I finally got my team,” Smith said to ESPN. “I always felt like I was trying to replace Russell, and you can never replace all the great things that he did. So I never felt like Seattle was my team. Also, I didn’t feel like I fit the aesthetic of the Seattle organization. The Raiders just fit me.”
The Seahawks never advanced out of the wild card round with Smith under center, but his success with a late-career breakout helped the organization stay competitive despite the quarterback change and, ahead of his final season, a coaching change. He led the squad to 10 wins last year and was among the NFL’s top passers throughout his starting tenure. Smith even led the league in 2022 with a 69.8% completion rate.
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After brief contract negotiations at the end of the 2024 season — Smith’s winningest campaign as the starter — Seattle elected to move on. In came Sam Darnold as his replacement.
“I felt like I done all I could do,” Smith said. “I showed them who I am, and if they wanted to go a different direction, so be it.”
Smith attributed the parting of ways, to an extent, to his personality. The former first-round pick is immensely confident and competitive, which perhaps helped him stick through the trials and tribulations of a six-year run as a backup with four different franchises.
“I for sure felt like it rubbed people in the front office the wrong way because of the way I carry myself,” Smith said. “If it rubs somebody the wrong way, good. Those aren’t the people I want to go to war with. I want people who really go die about it because that’s how I am.”
With a contract that pays him an average of $12 million more per year than he earned in Seattle, and with a coach in Pete Carroll who saw firsthand what he accomplished in the Pacific Northwest and selected him as the face of his offense in a new city, Smith may have finally found his ideal situation.