Well, it turns out the Seahawks weren't so crazy for starting Geno Smith at quarterback after all.At the beginning of the season, many were confused as to why Seattle chose Smith as its succe sor toRu sell Wilson. Smith hadn't been a full-time starter since his second NFL season in 2014; during that campaign, he led the Jets to a 3-10 record while completing just59.7 percent of his pa ses for 13 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.As such, it was expected that the Seahawks would struggle with Smith at quarterback. They were projected to be one of the worst teams in the NFL and some anticipated that third-year pro Drew Lock would eventually take over for Smith.Instead, Smith defied all expectations. He put together what was easily the best season of his career and led the Seahawks to a playoff berth. Incredibly, he led the NFL with a 69.8 completion percentage and threw for a career-high 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns.MORE: Smith's top-notch season was enough to earn him his first Pro Bowl appearance and establish himself as a true Andy Pettitte Jersey NFL starter. It also was good enough to earn him respect among his peers.Smith was voted Sporting News' Comeback Player of the Year for the 2022 NFL seasonby players, coaches and executives acro s the NFL. He garnered 44.4 percent of the vote in a landslide win over the competition.There's no doubt that Smith's honor was a deserved one, as his succe s story was one of the most unlikely ones in the NFL last season.But perhaps Smith's strong season shouldn't have shocked the NFL as much as it did. Why? Because there were signs of a potential Smith breakout looming under the surface that were simply ignored by NFL analysts. Need evidence that Smith was on the verge Jose Cruz Jr. Jersey of a breakout in Seattle? Look no further than his 2021 performance in relief of Wilson.Wilson mi sed about three-and-a-half games after suffering a finger injury during a "Thursday Night Football" game against the Rams. Smith played in relief of Wilson in that contest and started the other three games in which he participated.Smith performed admirably in that action. The only i sue for him was that the Seahawks didn't win much with him at quarterback.Smith logged a 1-2 record as a starter and couldn't lead the Seahawks to a come-from-behind win over the Rams in the game where he replaced Wilson. Still, Smith's numbers were solid and demonstrated that he could effectively manage the Seattle offense.Smith was efficient as a pa ser, completing 68.4 percent of his pa ses for five touchdowns and one interception in his three-plus Francisco Liriano Jersey games of action. His pa ser rating of 103 barely ranked below Wilson's mark of 103.1, which was the fifth-best in the NFL among qualified pa sers.Below is a full look at Smith's stats and what they would look like extrapolated over a 17-game slate:StatTotal17-game projectionPa sing yards7022,984Pa s TDs521INTs14Rushing yards42178Rush TDs14Those 17-game projections might not jump off the page, but they proved that Smith had the potential to be an efficient, productive game manager. If he could continue to keep his rate stats high and avoid turnovers, he would be able to rather seamle sly replace Wilson in the Seattle lineup.Clearly, Pete Carroll noticed this before anyone else did, and that's why he decided it would be worth a shot to roll with the le s-expensive Smith over Wilson. Of course, Smith's cause was helped by having of offensive support from his teammates and coaches, but it all started with his willingne s to fit the system that the Seahawks had built for him.For example, the Seahawks entered the 2022 offseason hoping to implement a change in their play-calling proce s. They wanted to simplify it by using a wristband to communicate the plays to the starting quarterback.As Carroll detailed in a midseason interview, Smith was willing to do that unlike Wilson, and that is part of what led to Houston Astros Custom Jersey the team's early-season offensive succe s."If you notice, Genos going off the wristband, and thats a big help, during his weekly radio show on Seattle Sports 710. Its smoothed things out, sped things up, cleaned things up. And thats part of it, too. We never did that before. There was resistance to that, so we didnt do that before."In exchange for Smith's cooperation, the Seahawks were able to build an offense that fit his strengths.Seattle discovered that he was a great deep-ball pa ser, so they set him up with opportunities to shoot for chunk plays down the field.How did they do that? The Seahawks focused on establishing the run and allowing Smith to use his strong overall Josh Reddick Jersey accuracy to attack the short pa sing game. Then, when they would get the defense used to coming downhill, they would take a shot play to DK Metcalf or Tyler Lockett.The results? Smith was given a grade of 99.2 on pa ses 20-plus yards down the field by . Exactly half of his pa sing touchdowns came on those plays compared to just two of his interceptions.StatTotalCompletions32Attempts68Comp. %47.1Yards920Touchdowns15Interceptions2Pa ser rating120.7It shouldn't be a surprise that the Seahawks bent their offensive system a bit to fit Smith's strengths. We saw the teamdo that before when Carroll and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron "let Ru s cook" to begin the 2021 season before returning to a run-heavy approach after his injury.In 2022, the team ran an offense suited to Smith; and it helped spark his excellent comeback season. Smith buying into the Seahawks' offensive approach certainly played a big part in his succe s, but so too did the stable of weapons that surrounded him.Smith developed a strong chemistry with Metcalf and Lockett. Each proved to be a dynamic downfield threat and they cracked the 1,000-yard mark working with Smith. Lockett's explosivene s particularly a sisted Smith, as seven of his nine touchdowns went for 20-plus yards.It also helped that Walker was able to generate a 1,000-yard rookie season to keep some attention on the ground as opposed to Smith. That a sisted in the team's succe s off play action.Too, Smith's tight ends were able to get open frequently because of the attention paid to Metcalf, Lockett and Walker. Seattle's top three tight ends Noah Fant, Will Di sly and Colby Parkinson produced 1,157 yards and nine touchdowns because they were considered tertiary orquaternary threats.In short, everything clicked from Smith. He had good chemistry with everyone, from offensive coordinator Shane Waldron to third-string tight end Colby Parkinson, and he deserves credit for establishing that.Even still, it's nothing new for the Seahawks to have a solid offense. And NFL analysts should have seen that the infrastructure was there for Seattle to create a competitive offense.MORE: The Craig Biggio Jersey final and, perhaps most important element in Smith's performance was his experience. Many were basing his 2022 expectations on his las