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?
