Geno Smith still striving to improve entering third year as Seattle Seahawks starter

RENTON, Wash. - Geno Smith feels he's the best he's ever been as he gets set to enter his third season as the starting quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks.

"Just a mindset of hard work, a tireless mindset, never satisfied, that type of stuff," Smith after Friday's practice at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. "Obviously, God is a lot of that, God given you got to be able to improve when you're working hard and to be 33 about to be 34 and I've gotten faster, I've gotten stronger, I put on more muscle. You know, you got to credit the strength staff here, my people back home who do a great job, and then that mindset that I've talked about of always wanting to get better and just trying to push yourself."

And to be clear, yes… Smith is the starting quarterback for the Seahawks. Sam Howell doesn't appear to be on the same level as Smith through his first few days of training camp and the offseason practices that were open to reporters.

With Seattle acquiring Howell in a trade with the Washington Commanders this spring, it seemed as though a quarterback battle was at least possible in training camp. Smith has already seemed to slam the door on that notion as he's been sharp and impressive.

"Geno looks great," defensive lineman Jarran Reed said. "He looked great last year. I think he looks so focused this year. His timing is good, his reads are good. Everything he is doing right now is elite. I think he is on an elite level right now. I'm so excited to see what our offense has to bring this year."

Through his two seasons as a starter in Seattle, Smith has shown he's a bona fide starting quarterback in the NFL. He's had some tremendously strong performances along with a few duds, but has generally managed his position very nicely over consecutive 9-8 seasons.

"Just really respect how he's approached everything," head coach Mike Macdonald said of Smith earlier this week. "We're on the record with how much we love him, how much of a great worker he is, and he looked really good today (Wednesday)."

Smith is coming off a pair of Pro Bowl appearances and led the NFL in completion percentage in 2022 at 69.8 percent. He was also very adept at avoiding pressure and creating successful plays last season despite playing behind one of the worst pass blocking units in the NFL. 

"I've gotten better at every single thing," Smith said. "Including leadership, all those things have got to get better and you know I'm going to take it day by day, that's kind of my mindset. I really don't look too far ahead but I do see improvements within myself, and it's a credit again to the guys around me."

With a new offense under new coordinator Ryan Grubb, the potential for the offense to take another leap forward this season seems high. If the offensive line can perform better this year, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba takes a leap in his second season in Seattle, Smith and the Seahawks offense could soar to new heights.

"There's a lot of volume, as far as plays and protections, and there's a bunch of nuances within the offense that we're still learning," Smith said. "It's only day three of camp. We've done a lot of great things out there on the field, but I still feel like we've got a long ways to go. That's the key thing, to focus on incremental success and just trying to get better and stack wins one day at a time." 

The Seahawks brought back 2019 second-round pick safety Marquise Blair on Friday, releasing safety Jonathan Sutherland to open the necessary roster spot.

Blair has dealt with injuries in recent seasons, including a torn ACL with Seattle in 2020 and a torn Achilles in April 2023 that wiped out all of last year. He appeared in 14 games for the Seahawks as a rookie in 2019, and has appeared in just 11 games combined in the four years since with Seattle and the Carolina Panthers.

Sutherland spent last season on the practice squad after signing as an undrafted free agent out of Penn State.