Nearly two years after suffering a horrific leg injury, Washington quarterback Alex Smith played in an NFL game. Indeed, the 36-year-old suffered a broken tibia and fibula on November 2018 that required 17 surgeries to repair, but that didn’t stop him from playing against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.

“It was surreal,” The Athletic’s Ben Standig said on After Hours with Amy Lawrence. “I’ve never thought for one minute he was ever going to play again. I know that he’s made progress, but even when he passed his physical, I’m like, ‘Okay, great. But he can’t play.’”

But then Smith made the 53-man roster. Then he was listed No. 2 on Washington’s quarterback depth chart.

“You’re one play away [from starting], and sure enough, Kyle Allen gets hurt late in the second quarter . . . and [it] actually happened. He’s literally going on the field,” Standig said. “There’s no cheering in the press box, but the first few times he was getting hit or people were getting close, there was gasping going on. It was bizarre and surreal and I still have a hard time believing it happened.”

Smith’s numbers were not great. He finished 9-of-17 for 37 yards and was sacked six times in the 30-10 loss. But that was not the main takeaway Sunday.

“His numbers were not good. You could see the rust,” Standig said. “But none of that really matters unless you’re just a crazy person who focuses on the team lost the game. The story of Alex Smith is just off-the-charts.”

Washington, which has lost four straight games, will square off against the Giants on the road this Sunday. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. ET.