Geno Smith Is the NFL’s Late-Blooming Star Quarterback

After losing a job because he got punched in the face and spending nearly a decade as a backup, Smith is having an unexpected star turn. The reason why is simple: opportunity.

Geno Smith had led the Seattle Seahawks to a 6-3 start. Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

By every shred of conventional thinking, Geno Smith historically hasn’t been a very good NFL quarterback, and he has been stratospheres away from being considered an elite one. 

In a sport obsessed with identifying and acquiring top-shelf passers, football decision makers repeatedly concluded that Smith wasn’t one. Any team could have signed him for relative pennies one of the half dozen times he became a free agent. 

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