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One of the more surprising QB dominoes to fall in the NFL this offseason was the trade of Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders. That ended his tenure with the Seattle Seahawks, a team that sparked his resurgence in the league as a starter, as they opted to sign Sam Darnold in free agency following the deal. While Seattle may have preferred Darnold over Smith, his new club -- specifically GM John Spytek -- seems over the moon about landing him.
"As we got into it and we evaluated the options in free agency, the other players that maybe were available via trade, ultimately we arrived at a spot where we thought adding Geno made a lot of sense for us," Spytek told the team-operated "Upon Further Review" show, via NFL.com. "It upgraded the position in our opinion. The compensation from a draft capital standpoint wasn't so costly. I mean, I love my picks more than anybody and I gotta remind Coach Carroll how much I love picks. But listen, we used a late third-round pick to hopefully have our starting quarterback here for years to come. And it was too good of an opportunity to pass up."
Specifically, the Raiders sent a 2025 third-round pick (No. 92 overall) to Seattle for Smith. While that's hardly a high price to pay for a starting quarterback on the trade market, there is the variable of the Raiders also needing to extend Smith. The 34-year-old is entering the final year of his current contract, so the two sides will need to come together in order for Smith to live up to Spytek's "for years to come" remark.
Contract aside, the Raiders are a good fit for Smith from the standpoint of the team hiring Pete Carroll as head coach. Carroll was leading the Seahawks when they signed Smith and helped bring his career back to life after naming him the full-time starter in 2022, following the trade of Russell Wilson.
"Obviously, there's a familiarity with coach and with Geno from Seattle, and really Geno played his best football for coach there," Spytek said. "And, when you've watched Geno through the years, he can throw the football with the best of any of them, honestly. You watch some of the throws he makes over and over again downfield, short, intermediate, the touch is there, the arm strength is there."
The presence of Smith does take some of the pressure off of Las Vegas when trying to answer its long-term questions about the position. However, it will be fascinating to see how the Raiders operate in the NFL Draft, especially if Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders is available when they are on the clock at No. 6 overall.
