Ranking the NFL Starting Quarterbacks

#21 Geno Smith (Seattle Seahawks)

You’ve got to respect how Geno Smith has been able to turn his career into something after 8 years of underwhelming play and a career-backup trajectory. Prior to 2022, he was completely written off (but he didn’t write back, as he would say). And now he’s entering his 3rd season as the Seahawks’ starting quarterback.

Since taking over in Seattle, Smith has put up some impressive numbers. Over the last two seasons, he’s completed 67.4% of his passes for 7,906 yards with 50 TDs, 20 INTs, and a 96.8 passer rating.

Smith still has the talent as a thrower that made him an attractive option to many when he came out in the 2013 NFL Draft:

His game has matured considerably as well. Take this play from Seattle’s Week 8 win over the Browns last season as an example. The Seahawks trailed 20-17 with 44 seconds left and had the ball on Cleveland’s 9-yard line.

Pre-snap, Smith did a great job of diagnosing the defense. To his left, he saw the safety stacking over the slot corner. This indicated a potential blitz:

The Seahawks had an RPO called. However, if the slot corner blitzed, that would trigger Jaxon Smith-Njigba to adjust his route, as Geno Smith said in his postgame comments:

“They blitzed the slot. Jackson had an adjustment on his route, which he did a great job of seeing that.”

It’s tough to know for sure what the original route would have been, but the end result was a bubble by Smith-Njigba:

This was a great adjustment because the safety replacing the slot corner was aligned inside, giving Smith-Njigba leverage to the perimeter. While the throw was a bit high, Geno did a great job of recognizing the coverage, reacting, and getting the ball out quickly to allow Smith-Njigba time to operate in space:

You can see that he had time to plant his feet and then turn on the jets around D.K. Metcalf’s block on the perimeter:

It was a simple play but one that showed Smith’s maturity in a big moment.

So why isn’t he higher on this list? Well, there are still some issues that keep him from being quite as consistent as some of the upper-echelon QBs.

His footwork in the pocket, particularly late in the play, isn’t always great. For instance, his feet sometimes don’t move with his eyes as he works through his reads, and he has a tendency to lose his throwing base when he has to move within the pocket. That leads to some inaccurate throws and impacts his timing.

And in general, he’s just a beat slow with everything he does in the pocket, from his feet, to his processing, to his throwing motion.

Not to mention, there are still those moments where the Geno of old (bad decisions, stare downs, etc.) pops up:

Still, Geno Smith is a quarterback that a talented team like the Seahawks can make some noise with. Don’t sleep on Seattle in 2024.

Check out the rest of the rankings here:
#32 Bo Nix (Denver Broncos)
#31 Drake Maye (New England Patriots)
#30 J.J. McCarthy (Minnesota Vikings)
#29 Gardner Minshew (Las Vegas Raiders)
#28 Will Levis (Tennessee Titans)
#27 Deshaun Watson (Cleveland Browns)
#26 Anthony Richardson (Indianapolis Colts)
#25 Bryce Young (Carolina Panthers)
#24 Daniel Jones (New York Giants)
#23 Jayden Daniels (Washington Commanders)
#22 Caleb Williams (Chicago Bears)
#21 Geno Smith (Seattle Seahawks)
#20 Russell Wilson (Pittsburgh Steelers)
#19 Derek Carr (New Orleans Saints)
#18 Baker Mayfield (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
#17 Kyler Murray (Arizona Cardinals)
#16 Trevor Lawrence (Jacksonville Jaguars)
#15 Jared Goff (Detroit Lions)
#14 Tua Tagovailoa (Miami Dolphins)
#13 Kirk Cousins (Atlanta Falcons)
#12 Jalen Hurts (Philadelphia Eagles)
#11 Brock Purdy (San Francisco 49ers)
#10 Jordan Love (Green Bay Packers)
#9 Dak Prescott (Dallas Cowboys)
#8 C.J. Stroud (Houston Texans)
#7 Justin Herbert (Los Angeles Chargers)
#6 Aaron Rodgers (New York Jets)
#5 Matthew Stafford (Los Angeles Rams)
#4 Lamar Jackson (Baltimore Ravens)
#3 Joe Burrow (Cincinnati Bengals)
#2 Josh Allen (Buffalo Bills)
#1 Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs)