Geno Smith started 29 of the 30 games he played in during his first two years in the National Football League.

A second-round selection by the New York Jets out of West Virginia, Smith put up manageable numbers during his rookie and sophomore seasons.

Since the start of the 2015 NFL season, though, Smith has appeared in just 15 games for four different organizations. Only five of those 15 appearances have been starts.

Three came during the 2021 campaign with the Seattle Seahawks, the team Smith recently re-signed with on a one-year deal.

Now, four months ahead from the start of his third season in Seattle, Smith appears in line to return to a full-time starting role.

“He has so much command of what we’re doing, that he just automatically is ahead,” Seattle head coach Pete Carroll said on Sunday. “He’s trying to ride that, and build on that. So, I’m proud of the way he’s taken to it.”

In four games played, including three starts, Smith completed 68.4 percent of his passes for 702 yards and five touchdowns last year.

Smith will be competing for the starting quarterback job with former Missouri quarterback Drew Lock, and former Georgia and Washington product Jacob Eason.

The former Mountaineer has the most NFL experience of the three, having been in the league since 2013. But all three are competing for the starting job.

“They really are focused to show well,” Carroll said when asked about the quarterback room as a whole. “These guys understand what’s at stake, and the [competition] of it all. So they were really tuned in. I mean, they’re giving everything they got.”

Smith passed for 11,662 yards and 98 touchdowns, and completed a school-record 988 attempts during his WVU career.

The two-time All-Big East quarterback is West Virginia’s all-time leader in pass attempts, completions, passing yards, touchdowns, and yards.