When Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith win the Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year award, there was a bit of blowback from the general public, because the resulting question was… well, what did Smith come back from? 2022 marked his first season as an NFL starter since 2014 with the New York Jets, his second year in the league after the Jets selected him out of West Virginia in 2013. And as Smith had never been transcendent in his career with the Jets — he completed 57.9% of his passes over four seasons with 28 touchdown passes, 36 interceptions, and a passer rating of 72.4 — the question lingered ever more succinctly.
Shouldn’t the award have been given to a player who had come back from injury in the previous season, like Panthers/49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, or Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver Chris Godwin? Why on earth was a guy who had started just five games from 2015 through the end of the 2021 season regarded as a comeback player at all?
Here’s the basic outline: While the criteria for the award is imprecise, it is typically given to a player who shows perseverance in overcoming adversity from not being able to play the previous season, such as an injury, or for playing well in comparison to the previous year’s poor performance. If a player can come back from such adversity or play at a high level over the previous year, they will usually be favored to win the award.
Spoiler alert: 2023 is the first year that I’ve been added to the list of voters for all these awards — from First- and Second-Team All-Pro to Offensive and Defensive Players and Rookies of the Year, Coaches and Assistants of the Year, and of course, Comeback Player of the Year. And I voted for Smith without hesitation. My second-place vote went to Godwin, and my third-place vote went to Kansas City Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon — who, like Smith didn’t just come back from one year of adversity; he came back from several. With all due respect to McCaffrey, who enjoyed a remarkable season with the 49ers, I tended to view the comebacks after several years of darkness to be a bit more impressive. That Smith was able to do that at the game’s most important position, and do it at a Pro Bowl level, makes it all the more remarkable.
Okay, smart guy, you may be asking once again… what did Smith actually come back from?
In August, 2015, Smith was involved in an altercation with Jets defensive end IK Enemkpali, which prevented Smith from starting the season. Ryan Fitzpatrick started that season strong, so new head coach Todd Bowles decided to keep Fitzpatrick in that role, even when Smith returned.
Smith didn’t get his next legitimate chance to start for the Jets until Week 7 of the 2016 season against the Baltimore Ravens. He suffered a torn ACL in that game, was lost for the rest of the season, and that was the end of his time with the Jets.
Smith signed with the New York Giants before the 2017 season, and outside of a weird time when he replaced Eli Manning as the team’s starter for a short time (this made him the first Black quarterback to start for the Giants, and it meant that every NFL team had finally had a Black starting quarterback at any time in their histories), he was seemingly doomed forever to the role of backup. That extended through his time with the San Diego Chargers in 2018, when he completed one pass on four attempts for eight yards.
Smith then signed with the Seahawks before the 2019 season, and competed with Paxton Lynch for the job of backup behind Russell Wilson. He was actually released and re-signed at one point, and didn’t take a single snap with Seattle that season. He completed four of five passes for 33 yards in the 2020 season, and finally got his first chances as a starter when Wilson suffered a finger injury in 2021. Then, he completed 65 of 95 passes for 702 yards, five touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 103.0.
Behind the scenes, Smith had become an entirely different and better quarterback, with no guarantee that it would ever pay off.
Then, the 2022 season, when the blockbuster Wilson trade left Seattle in need of a new starting quarterback. Before Smith could become That Guy, he would have to compete with Drew Lock, who the Seahawks got in that trade. It wasn’t really a contest, and Smith came into the 2022 season as the starter… at home… against Wilson and the Broncos.
No pressure, right?
All Smith did in that game was to complete 23 of 28 passes for 195 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 119.5.
From there, Smith established himself as the post-Wilson starter with performances that nobody but Smith himself could have expected. He finished the 2022 season with a league-best completion rate of 69.9%, 32 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and a passer rating of 100.8. For the first time in his nine-year career, Smith had finally been able to realize his potential.
Now again, the criteria for Comeback Player of the Year is not exact. We are not directed to vote for a player who had already established himself as a start, fell off due to injury in one season, and came back in the next season.
And I’m glad that’s the case, because the way I’ll answer the “What has Geno Smith come back from” question is to simply respond:
Who in today’s NFL has come back from more?
