Geno Smith connects with military visiting Seahawks, uses the ethos to turn around season
Geno Smith doesn’t have a military background.
He grew up raised by his mother, Tracey Sellers, and his grandmother, Joann Smith, in Miami. They instilled in him the values of hard work, and philanthropy. But they didn’t have a military background, either.
Yet the more the Seahawks’ 34-year-old quarterback meets our nation’s service members, particularly elite operations forces, through visitors his coach Mike Macdonald sets up, the more he feels a connection.
Sunday, Smith threw his NFL-leading 11th interception. It was early in the third quarter of Seattle’s latest renewal of its recently lopsided rivalry with San Francisco. Smith’s ill-advised throw after a long scramble on a third-down play that wasn’t working gave the 49ers possession at the Seahawks 27-yard line in a 7-6 game.
Smith walked off the field. When he got to Macdonald on the sideline, the coach told him a credo from a group of specially trained military personnel Smith and the Seahawks players had met a couple weeks ago when Macdonald invited them to a practice.
“Clear the next room.”
“Just go clear the next room and rock and roll,” Macdonald told Smith on the sideline Sunday afternoon.
“Clearing the next room” is a special-operations mentality for absorbing setbacks and pressing on with the task: a security sweep of a structure in a close-quarters combat environment. The NFL’s youngest head man at age 37, the son of a former Army officer and West Point graduate, has had his players and coaches visit U.S. Army combat units at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Macdonald’s also had special military units visit his Seahawks during his first season as their coach.
Sunday in Santa Clara, Smith cleared the next room. And then some.
Down by four points with 2 1/2 minutes left and 80 yards from winning, he completed 7 of 8 passes for 54 yards. He converted two third downs on dart throws to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. He scrambled 16 yards away from pressure to get Seattle into the red zone.
Then, with 18 seconds and no time outs remaining, Smith read the Niners dropping off deep in single-high safety coverage. As Smith dropped back to throw he saw middle linebacker Fred Warner, the only 49er who could prevent him from scrambling again outside left to the goal line, go with running back Zach Charbonnet on an inside pass pattern. Smith decisively ran left from the 13-yard line.
No one touched him until his Seahawks teammates mobbed him in celebration in the end zone, giddy over ending Seattle’s six-game losing streak to the 49ers.
Smith has the Seahawks (5-5) are back in the NFC West race entering their battle with Arizona (6-4) for the division lead Sunday at Lumen Field.
“I think the cool part about the ‘clearing the next room’: That was, really, a message that resonated with Geno that he thought was pretty cool. That came out of that whole experience,” Macdonald said Monday.
The coach was referring to the latest visit of a combat unit to Seahawks headquarters recently.
It’s exactly why Macdonald’s had the Seahawks visit military units, and hosted others at the team’s facility in Renton.
“To see kind of the two worlds collide and say ‘Hey, man. This is pretty cool. Like, we’re really more alike than you would anticipate and (we) deal with a lot of the same things, mentally,’” Macdonald said.
Geno Smith’s comebacks
Smith turned 34 last month. Yet he’s still learning in his 12th NFL season.
This one has showed that.
He’s projected negative body language and tone at times during games this uneven Seahawks season. Three weeks ago, while the Seahawks were losing five times in six games, Smith said he’s been seeking to improve balancing his perfectionism with his need to lead teammates.
“Just losing, that’s the main thing. I’m really not a great loser. It sucks. I hate it,” Smith said Oct. 31.
That was four days the quarterback got a penalty for taunting then was seen sulking while sitting on the bench during Seattle’s 31-10 home loss to Buffalo.
“I need to, overall when I watch myself, hey, man, continue to uplift the guys,” Smith said. “And, if I’m being honest, do a better job at times when we are down.”
He absolutely did that on Sunday in Santa Clara.
The victory late over the 49ers was his 10th comeback in the fourth quarter or overtime to win since the start of the 2022 season, when he took over for the Seahawks for traded Russell Wilson. Seven of Smith’s comebacks have come since the start of the 2023 season. That ties the former seven-year backup QB for four teams with Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts for the league’s most comeback wins in that span.
That’s how Smith was able to smile when he walked into the Seahawks’ offensive huddle at his own 20 yard line down 17-13 with 2:35 left.
“He came out there, and something was just in his eyes, man,” left guard Laken Tomlinson said. “He came in the huddle, smilin’. And I knew. Man, I just knew. I was like, ‘Man, this is it!’
“A ton of poise.”
After Smith beat the 49ers for the first time in his six career starts against them, Smith was asked Sunday what gets him through the interceptions, to the calmness in the final minute with the game — and in this case, season, at stake.
“I just think, perspective,” the 12th-year veteran said.
“I was out there smiling on that last drive, like, when I walked on the field. I mean, I just kind of felt like Angels in the Outfield, like somebody’s rubbing my shoulders the whole time. I just felt like there was no pressure.
“I think the perspective that I’ve gained over my career has allowed me to play that way. Whenever there is a moment or a mistake that’s made, I never really get too down on myself. And I also don’t get too high when good things happen.
“I think as long as you stay even-keeled throughout the process, things work out better that way.”
This story was originally published November 19, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
