Giants' Drew Lock hoping to follow in former teammate Geno Smith's footsteps and become starter again

Drew Lock got to know and like Geno Smith when they were teammates in Seattle the past two seasons. The Seahawks carried only two quarterbacks for most of that time so, as Lock pointed out, it was a cozy position room and they had little choice but to get along. But even without those parameters, they bonded quickly.

This despite Smith having been run out of New York twice under exceedingly glaring circumstances, first punched by a teammate as a Jet and then, as a Giant, having his first and only start for the team become the reason the head coach and general manager were canned.

Lock had heard those tales — obviously — but by the time he and Smith came together, they were more part of Smith’s history than his present.

“Our relationship was fantastic,” Lock said this week. “Got to go in there and we worked well with each other… The person that the media and everyone had written him to be was not the man that I met. Or, what he might have been was not the man I was with.”

Now that he is the backup quarterback for the Giants, though, Lock finds he has a new appreciation for Smith. He sees him as a friend, sees him as the opposing quarterback in Sunday’s game in Seattle, of course, but at this point in his career, Lock also sees Smith as a role model for what he wants to accomplish.

“Obviously he is a man of perseverance with how his career has gone,” Lock said. “We talked about it plenty of times when I was there. High draft pick, went through some rough patches, backup, made his way back, starter, played his butt off. Yeah, he’s fantastic.”

That resonates with Lock. As do similar tales around the league of players whose time in the NFL did not start out with success but are now finding their footing with second, third, even fourth teams. Quarterbacks such as Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield, Justin Fields were given up on at various points, only to now be helming some of the top teams in the league.

For Lock, Smith is at the top of that list.

“You have to think that way,” Lock said. “If you are in my position, you want to be like Geno Smith. You want to get that chance one more time, go play great football and lead a team again. It’s inspiring.”

Lock hasn’t yet played an offensive snap for the Giants as Daniel Jones’ backup (although he was called upon to be the holder for punter Jamie Gillam’s extra-point attempt against Washington, so he’s in the books as having “played” for the Giants). And despite some rocky moments from Jones, he isn’t eager to push the starter aside. But Lock knows that he has to remain ready for his next opportunity because whenever it comes, it could be his last.

“You get the second chance and after that one…,” he said, fading off with knowledge that there usually aren’t more after that. “But you want the second chance. You are praying for the second chance.”

Lock, like Smith, was a second-round pick. His career began in Denver. Over three seasons there, he made 21 starts with a record of 8-13, throwing 25 touchdowns and 20 interceptions.

In 2022, Lock was traded to Seattle as part of the Russell Wilson deal. He competed with Smith, who won the starting job in training camp. Smith took every snap in 2022. In 2023, Lock played a little bit. He led a touchdown drive against the Giants in Week 4 when Smith was temporarily injured, and had his best game as a pro in a Week 14 start against the Eagles, engineering Seattle to a 20-17 comeback win.

That wasn’t enough for another team to make him their starter, though. The Giants signed him as Jones’ clear backup. So now, he waits for his next chance to prove himself. Maybe it will be to the Giants. Maybe someone else.

“There are guys who do it,” Lock said of the recent run of comeback quarterbacks. “It still takes a lot. There might be one a year. I think those guys were in great situations to do it and took advantage of it. The same with Geno, Baker and Sam, both great offices to step into. They had to prepare and stay ready for that. Hats off to them for staying ready because that’s not always easy to do.

“There’s been the negatives too, the opposites, guys who get that shot and it doesn’t work out. You try to go to a place where if that shot does come you feel comfortable enough to go in there and do it. That’s just the life of a quarterback at this point I think.”

Lock said he is excited to be returning to Seattle with the Giants this weekend. Not only will he get to see former teammates and friends, it is where his 8-month-old son was born, so the Pacific Northwest will always hold a special place for him, he said. And yes, he did speak with the Giants coaches to give them some insight into the Seahawks’ personnel. He’s rooting for the Giants to win after all.

“Him being in that building and him understanding the players, it's a different scheme, both offensively and defensively, but he's had some insight into some of their guys,” offensive coordinator Mike Kafka said. “So, yeah, of course we've had those conversations.”

But Lock will also get to reconnect briefly with Smith, the player against whom he competed and lost out to, but who now lives the kind of football life to which Lock aspires. It will be a timely reminder, as Lock spends his time on the sideline, coming in from New York where Smith was ridiculed and rejected, that often the toughest times of not playing and being forgotten can build toward something great in this game.

“That’s a guy you don’t want to mess with, a guy who has come through what he’s come thorough,” Lock said of Smith. “There’s nothing really you can throw at him that will shake him at this point.”

Lock would like to be that guy himself one day.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.