After Week 4, should we ask if Geno Smith is an ‘elite’ NFL QB?

Now that the NFL’s Week 4 is complete, WVU football fans might get a kick out of checking the league’s passing stats.
Because former Mountaineer Geno Smith sits atop the statistic with 1,182 yards, 52 more than second place Brock Purdy (another former Big 12 QB, by the way).
If you’re a fantasy football nut like I am, you probably saw his terrific play in Seattle’s loss at Detroit on Monday night.
The Seahawk defense was a letdown, allowing 389 yards and 42 points. But Geno completed 38 of 56 passes for a career-high 395 yards – more than Detroit’s total — with one touchdown and an interception.
It was a crazy good night for quarterback play. Detroit’s Jared Goff completed all 18 of his passes (you read that correctly) for 292 yards and 2 TDs.
But WVU fans watching had to be proud. They remember him setting 33 Mountaineer game, season, class and career records as a quarterback from 2009-12. As a sports columnist cover West Virginia at the time, I don’t know what I’ll remember most, his eight TDs and 656 yards passing in a 2012 win over Baylor or his MVP performance in the 2011 70-33 Orange Bowl win over Clemson, in which he ONLY had 407 yards passing and accounted for seven TDs.
We know the story from there. Drafted in the second round by the New York Jets in 2013. Disaster there before bouncing around to the New York Giants, Los Angeles Chargers and, finally, the Seahawks.
But lately, wow. He’s not only been a great story, but I think it’s time to take it to the next level. Is Geno now in talking heads parlance “elite”?
Smith’s performance on Monday marked the 11th-most single-game passing yards in Seattle franchise history. He also ran five times for 38 yards to finish with 433 yards of total offense, the sixth-most in franchise history.
Now a 33-year-old veteran, Geno has thrown for the league-high 1,182 yards and also ranks second in the NFL with a 72.3% completion rate (behind Jayden Daniels’ crazy 82.1).
“I thought he was poised. I thought he was accurate. I thought he played a heck of a game,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said to Seattle Sports on Monday. “I don’t know what the stats are, but I thought he played really well.”
Yet is he elite? If not, he’s pretty darn close.
Over the past three seasons, according to StatMuse, if you take NFL quarterbacks with 19 (C.J. Stroud) or more games played (which eliminates Daniels), your top 10 in passer rating over the past three years are 1. Brock Purdy, 2. Joe Burrow, 3. Stroud, 4. Dak Prescott, 5. Aaron Rodgers, 6. Tua Tagovailoa, 7. Patrick Mahomes, 9. Jared Goff and 10. Geno Smith.
His 96.6 passer rating in that time span is better than Kirk Cousins, Lamar Jackson, Tom Brady, Josh Allen and Justin Herbert.
If you go by nfelo’s QB rankings, which include value versus average starter, passing and rushing, 2024’s best so far are 1. Allen, 2. Jackson, 3. Mahomes, 4. Prescott, 5. Rodgers, 6. Burrow, 7. Kyler Murray, 8. Jordan Love, 9. Purdy, 10. Jalen Hurts, 11. Goff and 12. Smith. In that, Geno is above Cousins, Derek Carr, Stroud, Daniels, Justin Fields, Tagovailoa,, Herbert, Matt Stafford and Trevor Lawrence, among others.
So, again, elite? Let’s give this season time to play out. But if Smith isn’t elite, he’s certainly made it to the upper tier of NFL QBs.
Which has to make all Mountaineer fans smile.
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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.