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In Week 17, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith will have an opportunity to beat the team that drafted him and threw him to the curb after just two seasons.
But Smith apparently won’t be the only member of the Seahawks perhaps out for revenge this week against the New York Jets. Seattle head coach Pete Carroll reminded the media on December 26 that, once upon a time, he was also with the Jets.
“I don’t know if he gets up any more than I do,” Carroll said about Smith facing the Jets. “I was there for a while, too. They sent me packing.
“Geno and I, we might ride this one out together.”
Carroll coached the Jets for one season in 1994. He led New York to a 6-10 record before getting fired.
Another Revenge Game for Carroll?
Carroll began his NFL head coaching career with two gigs in the AFC East — the Jets and New England Patriots. With the Seahawks in the NFC West, Carroll doesn’t get an opportunity to play his former teams very often.
But once every four years, he and the Seahawks face both the Jets and Patriots in the same season.
In Seattle, Carroll has gone a combined 6-0 against the Jets and Patriots during the regular season. In their last matchup versus the Jets, the Seahawks routed New York, 40-3, in 2020.
Carroll received his first NFL coordinator opportunity with New York in 1990. After four seasons in that position, he became the team’s head coach in 1994.
The Jets sat at 6-5 on Thanksgiving of that season, but after ending the season on a five-game losing streak, New York fired Carroll after one year.
Smith’s Opportunity Against the Jets
Smith played in the 40-3 victory versus New York two years ago, completing 4 of 5 passes for 33 yards in garbage time. But Week 17 will be his first start against his former team.
The Jets drafted Smith at No. 39 overall in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft. He started every game as a rookie and then made 13 starts in 2014. Smith led the Jets to an 8-8 record in his first season, but he went just 3-10 during his sophomore campaign.
New York then replaced Smith with Ryan Fitzpatrick the following season. In 2016, Smith received an opportunity to start again in Week 7 because Fitzpatrick was struggling with giveaways.
But Smith tore an ACL in that start and landed on injured reserve the rest of the season. The Jets then didn’t bring back Smith the following season.
The former second-rounder bounced around after that until landing in Seattle in 2020. He started just one game from 2016-19 and didn’t have the chance to compete for a starting job until this past summer.
That type of journey would usually be enough for a quarterback to “be up” for a matchup against a former team. Like Carroll, in retrospect, the Jets may have given up on Smith too soon.
But Smith has yet to be as vocal about facing the Jets as Carroll was. And judging by what he said to the media on December 8, Smith doesn’t appear to hold any ill-will towards any of his former teams.
“I can’t say it was tough [being a backup] because I have been so blessed,” Smith told the media on December 8. “Honestly, my tough times would be a dream to someone else.
“I never will look at it as something that was too hard for me or really tough because throughout that time, I still still enjoying my life and still in the NFL.”
Still, while Week 17 may not be a revenge game for Smith, it’s surely a matchup he will want to win. The Seahawks sit at 7-8 and a half game out of the final NFC Wild Card spot with two weeks to go.
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