Carl Smith re-joined the Seattle staff on February 24, 2021, and enters his 34th season as an NFL assistant coach. He returns after two years away from the Seahawks as he served as an assistant coach with the Houston Texans. He owns more than 43 years of overall coaching experience and has been a part of six division titles, two conference championships and won a Super Bowl.

Carl Smith re-joined the Seattle staff on February 24, 2021, and enters his 34th season as an NFL assistant coach. He returns after two years away from the Seahawks as he served as an assistant coach with the Houston Texans. He owns more than 43 years of overall coaching experience and has been a part of six division titles, two conference championships and won a Super Bowl.

As offensive consultant for Houston in 2020, Smith watch the league's fourth-ranked passing attack led by three-time Pro Bowler QB Deshaun Watson. Watson had a career-year in attempts (544), completions (382), completion percentage (70.22), yards (4,823), touchdowns (33), fewest interceptions (7) and passer rating (112.4). He also added 444 rushing yards, the second-most of his career. With his play, Watson qualified for the all-time NFL passer rating rankings and places second in NFL history in passer rating (104.5), home passer rating (106.8) and road passer rating (102.1).

In 2019, the Texans went 10-6 and captured the AFC South title. With Smith on staff, Watson directed a Texans offense that tied the team record for most total touchdowns scored (46) in a single season in team history (2009, 2012) and set franchise records for highest redzone touchdown percentage (64.2) and fewest three-and-outs (24). He was named to a second consecutive Pro Bowl after a stellar season that saw him win AFC Offensive Player of the Month in October and a franchise-record three player of the week awards.

Watson logged five games with over 250 passing yards and 40 rushing yards on the season, which led the NFL and tied Randall Cunningham (five in 1988) for the most in a season in NFL history. In Week 5 vs. Atlanta, Watson posted the highest quarterback rating by a player in a game in franchise history (158.3) and set a single-game career high with 426 passing yards. As a team, Houston scored the second-most points in a game (53) in franchise history and scored over 50 points for just the second time. His performance made him the first player to throw for at least 400 yards and five touchdowns with five-or-fewer incompletions in a single game in NFL history. He also tallied a franchise-record seven rushing touchdowns in 2019, which only trailed Bills QB Josh Allen among quarterbacks.

Smith previously served as the associate head coach of the Seattle Seahawks in 2018 after spending the prior seven seasons as the Seahawks quarterbacks coach (2011-17).

From 2012-17, Smith mentored Seahawks QB Russell Wilson to become one of the most successful quarterbacks in the NFL, winning Super Bowl XLVIII as the third-youngest starting quarterback in NFL history. Smith guided Wilson to 73 victories (regular season and postseason), which marks the most victories in a player's first six seasons in league history. Under Smith, Wilson threw the third-most touchdown passes (161) in a player's first six seasons in NFL history, trailing only Dan Marino and Peyton Manning.

Wilson became the first player in NFL history to record a 100.0 passer rating in each of his first two seasons in the league, and broke his own franchise record (101.2 rating in 2013) with a league-leading 110.1 passer rating in 2015. Wilson also became the first quarterback in NFL history with a winning record in each of his first six seasons.

In 2016, Wilson tied his career high and a Seahawks franchise record with 34 touchdown passes and had a hand in 37 of Seattle's 38 offensive touchdowns while being named to his fifth-career Pro Bowl. Wilson led Seattle to another double-digit win season while setting career highs in attempts (546), completions (franchise-record 353) and yards (franchise-record 4,219).

Wilson finished the final seven games of the 2015 season with a132.8 rating and became the only player in NFL history to pass for at least 24 touchdowns and have one or fewer interceptions in a seven-game span in a single-season. He became the first player in league history with 4,000 passing yards, 30 touchdown passes and 500 rushing yards in a single season.

Prior to joining the Seahawks, Smith spent two seasons as the Cleveland Browns quarterbacks coach from 2009-10, which marked his second stint with the Browns, having coached quarterbacks in Cleveland from 2001-03.

He spent 13 seasons as an offensive coordinator, last leading the Jacksonville Jaguars offense from 2005-06. In 2006, Jacksonville's offense ranked 10th in the NFL in total offense and third in rushing yards per game with an average of 158.8. In 2005, the Jaguars scored 361 points, 100 more than the previous season, and finished with a 12-4 record.

Prior to his time in Jacksonville, Smith worked with Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll in 2004 at the University of Southern California, where he mentored Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart and helped the Trojans win the National Championship.

Smith served as the assistant head coach/quarterbacks coach for the New England Patriots in 1997. Under Smith's tutelage, Patriots QB Drew Bledsoe completed more than 60 percent of his passes, threw for more than 3,700 yards and set career highs in touchdown passes (28) and passer rating (87.7) as he was voted to the Pro Bowl in 1997. Smith would later transition to the Patriots tight ends coach from 1998-99.

Smith began his NFL coaching career with the New Orleans Saints in 1986, serving as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach for 11 seasons. During that time, the franchise recorded its first-ever winning season, earned its first playoff berth, won its first division title and qualified for the postseason on four occasions.

Prior to the NFL, Smith was an assistant at the collegiate level for 12 seasons, with the final six as an offensive coordinator.

Smith lettered in football as a defensive back at California Poly-San Luis Obispo from 1969-70 after transferring from Bakersfield College where he played quarterback from 1966-67. He earned his bachelor's (1971) and master's (1972) degrees in physical education from Cal Poly.

A native of Wasco, Calif., Smith and his wife, Dianne, have three sons, Tracy, Tyler and Nicholas, two grandsons, Troy and Bo, and a granddaughter, Lane. Smith's son, Tracy, serves as Seattle's assistant special teams coach.