Getty Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith is receiving a lot of praise for his start to the 2022 season.
Prior to this season, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith developing into a franchise quarterback hadn’t been on anyone’s mind since 2014. That season was the last time Smith started more than three games.
With a full season of opportunities with the New York Jets during 2013 and 2014, Smith posted an 11-18 record with a 57.5% completion percentage and 25 touchdowns versus 34 interceptions. He’s remained in the league as a backup for a couple different organizations, but before 2022, Smith had just four games in his career where he recorded a passer rating of more than 100.
Incredibly, Smith has already matched that total of four games with a passer rating greater than 100 in the first seven weeks of 2022.
That and a plethora of other reasons, most notably, Seattle holding sole possession of first place in the NFC West after Week 7, has the media not just talking about Smith as a franchise quarterback but a candidate for one of the NFL’s most prestigious individual awards.
Sports writer Peter King of NBC Sports argued in his weekly column that Smith is a top five candidate for NFL MVP after seven weeks.
King also implied Smith is the biggest NFL story about halfway through the 2022 season.
“But the story of the first two months of this season is the comeback story of all comeback stories. Geno Smith is good,” King wrote. “He’s really good. He’s the most accurate quarterback in football, he’s the third-highest-rated quarterback in football, he’s in the top five in MVP consideration right now, and he’s got the Seattle Seahawks alone in first place in the NFC West.”
Smith Matches Career Total of 4 Games with 100+ Passer Rating
Smith’s latest outstanding performance came on October 23 when he led the Seahawks to a 37-23 upset victory against the Los Angeles Chargers by completing 20 of 27 passes for 210 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception.
With that performance, Smith posted a 105.5 passer rating. It was the third time in four weeks that he had a passer rating of at least 105. Smith recorded just two starts with a passer rating greater than 105 in two seasons as a starter with the Jets.
Overall, Smith has a 107.7 passer rating this season. He has yet to post a passer rating below 80 in 2022. From 2013-14, his passer rating was 71.5 in 29 starts.
Smith Entering MVP Conversation?
If Smith keeps up his strong play, he might do something Russell Wilson never did as quarterback of the Seahawks — receive MVP votes.
King has the Seattle signal caller in his MVP race, as he called him a top five candidate for the award. It’s hard to argue against that.
Smith leads the NFL with a 73.5% completion percentage. He also has 1,712 passing yards with 11 touchdowns and just 3 interceptions. Furthermore, he’s averaging 8.0 yards per attempt, which is a yard more than what he averaged from 2013-14.
The Seahawks quarterback is top five in all of those categories. The only quarterbacks averaging more yards per pass than Smith this season are Tua Tagovailoa, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes.
Yep, sounds like an MVP candidate.
Maybe the most impressive thing that King noted during his column is that despite how surprised NFL fans are to hear Smith enter the MVP conversation, the quarterback still expects himself to continue improving.
“Nothing has surprised me,” Smith told King when he asked the quarterback to name one or two things that surprised him this year. “In fact, I know I can play a lot better.”