Geno Smith is back with the New York Jets, and the Detroit Lions hope he looks more like Jets Geno Smith than Seattle Seahawks Geno Smith against them on Sunday.
Back in 2014, the Lions left MetLife Stadium with a 24-17 win against Smith during his first tenure with the Jets. Smith went 17/33 passing for 209 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and one fumble lost.
It would be Smith's last season as a starter until taking over for Russell Wilson in Seattle in 2022. For the next three seasons, Smith would become an unstoppable force. Well, against the Lions' defense, at least.
In those three games with the Seahawks, Smith would throw for 1,043 yards, five touchdowns, and one interception, along with 107 yards on the ground and one rushing touchdown.
In a far cry from that 2014 game, the Lions and Seahawks would combine for 77.33 points on average in those games, with a high watermark of a 48-45 win for Smith and the Seahawks in 2022, where the Lions' fourth-quarter comeback effort fell short.
The Lions needed another fourth-quarter comeback attempt in 2023, this time taking the game into overtime. However, Smith got the last laugh, going 6/7 for 69 yards on that game-winning drive, ending it on a six-yard TD pass to wide receiver Tyler Lockett.
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The Lions finally beat Seahawks Geno Smith in a relatively comfortable 42-29 win in 2024. This game is best known for Jared Goff's perfect game, in which he completed all of his passes and caught a receiving TD for good measure in one of the best performances of his stellar career.
Smith wasn't a non-factor in that game, either. In fact, he threw 38 completions on 56 attempts for 395 passing yards (all career highs) and rushed for 38 yards (tied for 10th most in his career). The Lions held Smith to just one TD, while also picking him off once in the victory.
For his career, Smith is 2-2 against the Lions, but his 1,252 passing yards are his most against a single opponent he has never shared a division with. On the plus side, every season the Lions have played against Smith, they finished with an above-.500 record. The only one of those seasons where the Lions failed to make the playoffs was the only time they lost to Smith in regulation (2022).
To keep that trend alive, the Lions' defense needs to step up and avoid another disastrous performance. Can they?
Lions' defense will need to find an answer for Geno Smith on Sunday
The Lions will face off against Smith in a new stage of his career. He hasn't been the Pro Bowl-level quarterback he was in Seattle, and he's coming off a horrific stint with the Las Vegas Raiders, where he led the league in INTs (17).
Smith has rebounded in his second stint with the Jets, going 46/65 (70.8 percent), with 462 passing yards, one TD, and zero INTs through two weeks. He's led the Jets to a 1-1 record, with a comfortable 23-10 win over the Tennessee Titans and a disappointing 17-20 OT loss to the Green Bay Packers. That loss could be attributed to the Jets' lackluster run game in Week 2, accounting for 67 total rush yards.
Against Detroit, Smith will have a more forgiving defensive secondary and a dome environment to let loose in the passing game if the run game is problematic again.
Not only is Smith playing decent ball again, but he's led by former Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, as well. Glenn will be familiar with his former head coach Dan Campbell, his former linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard, and numerous players on both sides of the ball in Detroit. That could be a recipe for disaster for a Lions defense that has allowed the second-most yards league-wide overall (915) and in the passing game (621).
On the other end of that spectrum? The Jets, who have allowed the fewest yards of any team overall (394) and the second-fewest passing yards (263). Goff and the offense will definitely have their work cut out for them.
If the Lions' defense wants to turn a corner and build up momentum toward Brian Branch's (and maybe Kerby Joseph's) return in the safety unit, they'll need to make Smith look like, well, Jets Geno Smith again. If they can't, then they might need another perfect game from Goff to win on Sunday.
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