{"id":40584,"date":"2025-05-11T02:31:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T02:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/40584\/"},"modified":"2025-05-11T02:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T02:31:11","slug":"raiders-predicted-to-make-drastic-geno-smith-pivot-after-inking-qb-to-75-million-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/40584\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiders Predicted to Make Drastic Geno Smith Pivot After Inking QB to $75 Million Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Las Vegas Raiders spent a third-round draft pick and $75 million<\/a> to secure 34-year-old quarterback Geno Smith this offseason, and all of it potentially for just one year of work as the team’s starter.<\/p>\n

Smith reinvented himself and reignited his career via a five-year stint with the Seattle Seahawks, during which he threw for nearly 13,000 yards and 76 touchdowns<\/a> in 54 games — including 52 starts (28-24) — and earned Pro Bowl honors twice.<\/p>\n

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Still, given his age and cost, Smith was an interesting decision for a rebuilding Raiders team that just hired a new general manager in John Spytek and head coach Pete Carroll. The connection, of course, is that Smith played for Carroll from 2020-23 — his last four seasons as head coach of Seahawks.<\/p>\n

Given the imperfect fit and solution that Smith represents in Las Vegas, Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report predicted on Friday, May 9, that the team will move on to a new answer under center following the 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n

\"Las<\/p>\n

Las Vegas Raiders QB Geno Smith.Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

“The Raiders must know deep down that 34-year-old Geno Smith is a bridge quarterback who’s coming off a 15-interception campaign in Seattle,” Gagnon wrote<\/a>. “They wouldn’t have a dead cap hit\u00a0if they trade him next offseason, so they figure to pursue a longer-term option after this year.”<\/p>\n

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Trading Smith might prove a somewhat onerous task given that his contract extension runs through the next three years and carries significant base salaries in 2026 ($26.5 million) and 2027 ($39.5 million). However, if Smith plays competently in 2025, the shortage of quality starters around the NFL could certainly create a reasonable market for him next spring.<\/p>\n

Las Vegas chose not to pursue a high-level quarterback in April’s NFL draft, despite owning the No. 6 overall pick, which the team used to acquire standout running back Ashton Jeanty out of Boise State.<\/p>\n

The Raiders did draft two quarterbacks, however: Tommy Mellott out of Montana State in the sixth round (No. 213 overall) and Cam Miller out of North Dakota State also in the sixth round (No. 215 overall).<\/p>\n

Related: Raiders Fans React to Derek Carr Retirement News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Las Vegas Raiders spent a third-round draft pick and $75 million to secure 34-year-old quarterback Geno Smith…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[1303,11140,7,1507,1744,393,2455,2454,6,3976,1257,525,261,5654,14577],"class_list":{"0":"post-40584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-ashton-jeanty","9":"tag-brad-gagnon","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-geno-smith","12":"tag-las-vegas","13":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","14":"tag-lasvegas","15":"tag-lasvegasraiders","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-pete-carroll","18":"tag-quarterback","19":"tag-raiders","20":"tag-seattle-seahawks","21":"tag-the-raiders","22":"tag-trading-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}