Geno Smith has been a member of the Seattle Seahawks for five seasons now, and the starter for two of them. But in that half-decade in the Emerald City, Smith has firmly established himself as a Pete Carroll favorite, and Smith feels the same way about his veteran coach. My biggest regret about writing this piece is that it's December 29th and not February 14th, because when you read the quotes from both Geno Smith and Pete Carroll, you'll see that this is a lovefest worthy of a Valentine's Day publishing date.

Seahawks' Carroll, Smith get real

“I love his story,” Pete Carroll said of his starting quarterback, per John Boyle of Seahawks.com. “He's taught me so much, and I admire him for the way he's handled the competitive part of this thing. He's taught us about belief in yourself and how powerful that is.”

Even as Geno Smith stood on the sideline and watched Drew Lock — the man he beat out for the QB1 job in Seattle last summer — lead the Seahawks to a comeback victory over the Philadelphia Eagles two weeks ago, Smith's belief in himself never wavered. He was as excited as anyone else in Seattle that Lock had gotten the job done. But if you ask Smith why his attitude remained so steady and supportive, he'd probably just go ahead and give the credit to his head coach.

“He's one of the best motivators I've ever been around, he's one of the coaches who truly believes in hard work, so when I got here, I knew that if I worked hard enough, maybe I'd get a shot,” Smith said. “That's the thing about this place, the opportunity is there for the guys who work hard and who compete. For me, my mindset is to continue to work and try to better each and every day. I think he likes that; he likes guys who continue to push and better themselves.”

Following his two week absence, Geno Smith returned last week as the Seahawks starting quarterback and led Seattle to another come-from-behind win, securing the victory over the Tennessee Titans with a game-winning touchdown pass to Colby Parkinson with under a minute to go. It was not only the win, but Smith's impeccable attitude that prompted Carroll to call his quarterback “one of my all-time favorite guys.”

“Fortunately, because of our background and that we've been connected and communicated so much for so many years, even though it was hard, it wasn't hard, nobody was yelling at anybody. We just had to work through and kind of hug our way through it and make the right choices and make the tough choices, and just keep hanging, which Geno is famous for. He did. He did exactly that, and when the time was right, and he was ready to go, look what he did.”

What Geno Smith did was put Seattle in position to secure a playoff berth for the second consecutive year, after what was supposed to be a total tear-down following the era-ending Russell Wilson trade. But the relentless optimism, love, and self-belief of Seattle's coach and quarterback combination has kept the Seahawks flying high.