Geno who? Seahawks QB has revitalized his career after forgettable time with Giants, Jets

Most people remember the Dec. 3, 2017 game between the Giants and the Raiders for the end of a streak.

Eli Manning had started 210 straight games, the second most in NFL history, but earlier that week, coach Ben McAdoo broached the idea of a preplanned pulling of the quarterback from the game — starting him to preserve the streak and then taking him out at a specific time. When Manning balked at that concept, McAdoo made the seismic decision to bench him that, the day after the 24-17 loss, cost him and general manager Jerry Reese their jobs.

For one person, though, that game and that day were not culminations of a long period of time regarding quarterback play. It was just the start of it.

Geno Smith, who already was a locally reviled player for his tumultuous tenure with the Jets — going 11-18 as a starter in his first two years in the league — turned into a pariah to the other team in town. He became known as the guy who usurped the much-beloved Manning.

It was a tough mantle to bear.

Tougher still was after his start in Oakland, where he threw for 202 yards and a touchdown in a losing effort.

Smith went back to the bench and would have to wait there in exile nearly four years until his next opportunity to start in the NFL. Four years of toiling and practicing, hardly ever playing, and living life as a player defined by his pair of busts with the Jets and Giants.

Then came last year, when he was the backup for the Seahawks. Smith stepped in when Russell Wilson fractured his finger, started three games and went 1-2 with four touchdown passes and zero interceptions.

Geno who?

These days Smith is nearly unrecognizable to the fans who knew him when, or at least thought they did.

He’s playing the best football of his career and is the undisputed starting quarterback for Seattle, a young team making noise in the NFC West. His name is even being tossed around for Comeback Player of the Year honors.

On Sunday, he’ll face the Giants, the organization that gave him that one controversial opportunity — which became more of a burden than a blessing — and then sentenced him back to the sideline.

Smith, however, was able to emerge on the opposite end of his career. At age 32, he’s a changed player and a different man.

In the Giants’ locker room, that’s the player they see. Hardly anyone has been with the Giants long enough to be aware of any different version.

“It’s definitely tough,” said Giants backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who has had a similar but not as dramatic career arc. “It takes a different person, a true competitor, to stay committed to the process and understand there are going to be highs and lows. Everyone’s road is different. He’s done a great job of enduring those highs and lows and putting himself in the best position to go out and play at a high level, which he’s done this year.”

Smith ranks third in the NFL in QBR (66.8) and passer rating (107.7), first in completion percentage (.735) and third in Pro Football Focus grade (83.6). He is tied for sixth in touchdown passes (11). Oh, and he’s thrown only three interceptions.

“I’m happy to see someone’s career go like his and still end up where he’s at right now,” said Giants defensive tackle Justin Ellis, who, coincidentally, was on the Raiders team that Smith started against with the Giants (although he said he doesn’t remember it or the hubbub about it). “A lot of guys may have given up or something, but I think he’s playing well, one of the best guys in the league right now. I’m happy for him.”

It’s hard to think of anyone whose career has followed such an unlikely path. In fact, the only one Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, the king of comps, could come up with was another former Giants quarterback.

That quarterback, ironically, took the brunt of the start of Manning’s legendary streak.

“I’ll give you the first name I think of: Kurt Warner,” Martindale said of the rise of the supermarket stock boy and Arena League player who went on to become a Hall of Famer, a narrative so unlikely that it found a home in Hollywood this past year. “I don’t know if they’ll make a movie with Geno, but as a football fan with respect for the game, I really respect what he’s done with his game. Besides playing against him, it’s fun to watch the success that he’s had.”

It’s a personal renaissance that has been a surprise to everyone but Smith. Earlier this season, he eloquently summed up his path to prominence with what may be the quote of the year in the NFL: “They wrote me off but I ain’t wrote back.”

That was after Smith and Seattle beat the Broncos and Wilson in Week 1.

Nothing but love for NY

Smith, for his part, downplayed any full-circle storylines about starting Sunday against the Giants.

“What I can say is I enjoyed my time there, had an opportunity to learn and grow, was able to be under Coach McAdoo and Mr. Jerry Reese, who I owe a lot to,” Smith told reporters in Seattle this past week. “And obviously, being able to be in the same room with Eli Manning and to learn from him, learn with him, and to compete with him, it was awesome just to be a part of that for a year.”

Regarding his one start for the Giants, Smith said: “Obviously, there was a lot of speculations and stuff surrounding that game, but for me, like I’ve always been, I was just focused on the game. I didn’t really get caught up in anything else.”

Davis Webb was a rookie quarterback during that dysfunctional 2017 season. Many thought he, not Smith, should have started against the Raiders. Now Webb is back with the Giants on the practice squad as a veteran third-string option and mentor for Daniel Jones.  

A tangled Webb

Webb recalled the emotion of that tumultuous week, Manning coming into the quarterbacks room with tears in his eyes to tell the others he would not be starting, and Webb, uncertain what it would mean for him, feeling his own stomach flipping.

He went back to being at his old locker, pointing just a few stalls down from where he currently resides, and watching an emotional Manning speak to the media later that day. He said it was the biggest and most dramatic NFL storyline he has ever been part of and suspects it will forever stay that way.

But he also remembers looking at Smith, who remained stoic, and wondering if he’d been told the news before Manning’s tearful announcement. And how Smith, then 27, conducted himself through everything after that moment.

“I thought Geno handled it really well,” Webb said. “It wasn’t easy for anybody, obviously Eli number one. But I thought the room did a good job quieting everything. When you left the building and looked at your phone, sure, there were plenty of texts, but that room did a good job coming together and helping each other out. That’s how it carried out the rest of the year.”

The next week, interim coach Steve Spagnuolo reinstated Manning as the starter. He remained in that role for another year and a half until Jones replaced him for good. That was a much more palatable and less tense transition for everyone involved in and outside the organization. By then it was time.

Another familiar face

Smith likely will go back down this bad memory lane again this season. Seattle faces the Jets on Jan. 1.

He’ll be asked about the punch he took from a teammate in the locker room and the craziness of that John Idzyk-led team that dismantled the most recent brushes with organizational success the Jets have experienced.

There in Florham Park, as with the Giants, his legacy is veritable ancient history for the current crop of players. Those who knew him in green and white as the second-round pick from West Virginia are still cheering for him, though.

“I’m always happy to see guys have success, whether they’re on our team or not,” former teammate D’Brickashaw Ferguson said of Smith’s season. “So I think it’s great to applaud those efforts.”

This week, though, he’s the first former Giants starting quarterback to face his old team since Warner did it with the Cardinals. Besides Smith and Warner, there have been only seven others to do so in the Super Bowl era.

Smith also resides on a very odd and exclusive list of players who have started only one career game at quarterback for the Giants (not counting replacement players during strike seasons). The only others to do so were Jim Del Gazio in 1974, Tom Kennedy in 1966, Arnie Galiffa in 1953 and Tom Landry in 1952.

Another historical anomaly: Smith was the first and remains the only Black starting quarterback in Giants history.

Keeping in touch

Webb still texts with Smith, he said. The quarterbacks and former Giants quarterbacks coach Frank Cignetti, now the offensive coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh, are on a thread that is mostly dormant but sometimes will light up and bring a word of encouragement or just a quick greeting.

The more common interaction is for Webb to watch Smith’s film in Seattle.

“He’s playing as arguably one of the best quarterbacks in the league right now,” Webb said. “Statistically and straight up, if you watch their games, it is noticeable he’s in control. Any time a player has gone through some adversity and has reached some consistent good play, and that’s what he’s been doing, I root for that.”

After the 2017 season, Smith went to the Chargers and then to Seattle. Webb went to the Jets and Bills before coming back to the Giants. They haven’t seen each other in person since they parted ways in the unsettled dust and debris of that one tumultuous year together.

Webb said he is looking forward to ending that streak on Sunday by being on the field and saying hello to his old teammate.

 With Anthony Rieber