It has been a nightmare season for Geno Smith in his first year with the Raiders, and on Sunday it came to a head when Smith lost 24-10 to the Browns and flashed the “bird” at a fan on his way off the field.
The Raiders issued an apology for Smith’s actions on Sunday afternoon, and Smith did the same at his press conference on Wednesday.
There has been a mixed response to Geno’s apology and on Thursday, former Raiders offensive lineman Lincoln Kennedy shared how he would have handled Geno’s antics.
Kennedy also shared the moment he knew the Raiders quarterback wasn’t in the right head space.
“I saw when Gorilla Rilla posted his little thing on Instagram, how the guys come out for the offense. Geno didn’t give anybody high fives. I knew he was in his feelings right then and there,” Kennedy said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show podcast.
“I can understand it, and I can respect it because I’ve seen how much stress and turmoil this man has been under. And look, it’s not always the offense line fault. Sometimes it’s his fault, so on and so forth. But the same point is that you cannot allow your emotions. My point is you can’t allow your emotions to get the best of you and it did in that instance.”
“I respect the apology. I would have probably, and I’m not coach, but I would have probably sat him down for probably the first couple of plays, just to show him that the fans mean something to the team and the team means something to the team. You’re going to sit down because this is something I don’t expect my quarterback, my leader, to do. So you sit down for a couple of series and maybe even quarter something like that, just to show some discipline and some sense of control. But that’s just me.”
Kennedy didn’t say it specifically, but what stood out about Smith’s unwillingness to acknowledge the fans was that it happened before the game even started.
It’s been three miserable months for Smith in a Raider uniform and it’s fair to wonder if he has reached a point of no return with the fans and the organization.
Geno said all the right things on Wednesday, but how much patience does he have left with everything that’s been working against him in Las Vegas?
On a related note, the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vinny Bonsignore said this week that he still thinks Smith will be back with the Raiders next year.
“Geno Smith, everyone brings up the hard cap hit. It’s also $18 million in cash that you have to pay him. It’s not something that’s just a repercussion, you know, a salary cap repercussion,” Bonsignore said on Raider Nation Radio’s Morning Tailgate this week.
“This is actual money,” Bonsignore continued. “So I would probably lean more toward… you draft a quarterback, Geno Smith becomes the guy that you roll into next year with until you feel like the rookie is ready to take over and then you hand over the reins to him. That might not be next year. It could be the year after that.”
With all due respect to Bonsignore, there is a lot working against Smith returning to the Raiders at this point.
The team will have to write an $18 million check to part ways with Smith after the season, but if he’s clearly not the quarterback of the future, what’s the purpose in putting him on the field beyond this season?
The fans have lost patience with Smith, his head coach might not be back in 2026, and a lot is going to have to go right in the next six weeks if the Raiders and Smith are really going to try to run it back again next year.
x: @raidersbeat