After the catastrophic leg injury that nearly cost him his life in 2018, Washington Football Team quarterback Alex Smith wasn't sure if he would ever throw in an NFL game again.

He certainly didn't expect to be starting under center for Washington in 2020.

In a new interview with GQ, the 36-year-old discussed his surprising return to the QB1 role. After the team benched former first-round pick Dwayne Haskins and backup Kyle Allen was lost for the season with his own gruesome leg injury, Smith was thrust back into the fold.

“When I decided to come back, I definitely threw a wrench in the team’s plan,” Smith told Clay Skipper in GQ. “They didn’t see it, didn’t want me there, didn’t want me to be a part of it, didn’t want me to be on the team, the roster, didn’t want to give me a chance. Mind you, it was a whole new regime, they came in, I’m like the leftovers and I’m hurt and I’m this liability. Heck no, they didn’t want me there. At that point, as you can imagine, everything I’d been through, I couldn’t have cared less about all that. Whether you like it or not, I’m giving this a go at this point.”

Smith — who noted that the team “never thought I was coming back” — ended up starting six games, including one playoff game. The Washington Football Team won five of his starts, and the veteran produced a 78.5 passer rating on his way to winning the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year award.

Smith remains under contract through 2021, at $8.6 million. He has not declared whether he'll return to the field or retire, though he recently told Kyle Brandt of The Ringer that he still has room for “growth on the field.”