After a miserable 2024 season, the Raiders are hoping Tom Brady will be able to bring a winning culture to the team that’s been absent for the better part of the last two decades.
After missing on their top choices at head coach and quarterback, the Raiders are moving into the 2025 season with Pete Carroll and Geno Smith, and that combination has earned the enthusiasm of some… but not everyone.
The Athletic’s Vic Tafur addressed the Raiders’ two biggest moves of the offseason on the Just Win podcast last week, and he doesn’t believe either decision was an obvious home run.
“It’s a fine move,” Tafur said about the Raiders’ decision to trade a third-round pick for Smith.
“Are [they] going to be the Seattle team from two years ago that were 9 and 8 and got the coach fired?” Tafur continued. “I just don’t know if these are the moves you want to make kicking off a new regime. I’m supposed to be excited about Pete Carroll and Geno Smith? Again, they’re fine. They’re better. They’re competitive, I guess. In this division, you’re still in fourth place, I think, but we’ll see how it goes.”
Smith is all but certain to be the Raiders starting quarterback when the 2025 season begins, but for reasons unknown, he still hasn’t reached a long-term deal with the team. Until that happens, the Raiders still have flexibility at the position.
Tafur’s colleague, Tashan Reed, reported last week that Smith was expected to reach a deal with the Raiders before the start of this week, but that timeline has obviously been extended.
“Smith should receive a contract extension from the Raiders this week, according to league sources,” Reed reported on Thursday of last week. “He’s going into the final year of a three-year extension he signed with Seattle back in 2023. While he has no guaranteed money left on the deal, he’s due a $16 million roster bonus on Sunday. That’s the artificial deadline for the Raiders to sign him to a new contract if their intention is to lower his 2025 cap hit, which is currently set to be $31 million.”
Some had referenced March 16 as a deadline of sorts to get an extension done with Smith, but Reed said his roster bonus on Sunday can be absorbed as part of a larger signing bonus when the extension is finalized.
It will be interesting to see what the details of Smith’s contract ultimately look like because the Raiders will most likely would prefer a contract they can get away from in two or three years. Pete Carroll likes Smith a lot, but a late third-round pick isn’t the cost of a franchise quarterback – or at least not the cost of a perceived franchise quarterback.
And until Smith has a contract extension, the door is still open for the Raiders to pivot – or at least make a significant investment at quarterback in the draft.
Ironically, Smith is the NFL comparison that many have been making for Shedeur Sanders.
Those two, it would appear, have been spending time together in recent weeks.
x: @raidersbeat
This guy SUCKS worse quaterback in the league next to Winston what is this stupid organization doing?Another screwed up season!!!!!!!!!!
OK, take a breath. Worst in the league? No, check your stats. There’s absolutely no question that Geno Smith is better than Jamies Winston. He has put together three solid winning seasons behind subpar lines and the other guy available in free agency Darnold, could only put together one and it took a **** near perfect team around him. Maybe Darnold turned has turned it around for good but I wouldn’t take that bet. And who else was out there? Aaron Rodgers really? Russell Wilson really? Oh maybe Russell’s Back Up in Pittsburgh Justin fields? With a 65% completion rate and a 50% QBR? NOPE. That doesn’t compare to Gino’s numbers . Let it play out. I could be wrong but odds are not on 40 year old reclamation projects or an undisciplined run n’ gun QB who’s never had a winning season. The same can be said of first year coaches, coaches without the moxie to pull Chip Kelly from an NCAA Champion or The Raiders will be better this year. The Raiders may go to the playoffs this year. Vic is wrong about missing on first coaching choice Ben Johnson. Johnson’s agent said that was never in play. Vrabel was always going to the Pats so comparing Pete to the rest of the field, he’s coached two SB teams and won SB. Who else in the field of candidates has that resume? Nobody. Plus a NCAA Championship. Pete has turned losing organizations into winners, fact. So where was the better candidate?
The 24 Raiders were a 4 win team. Do you honestly not believe that if the Raiders had had Geno Smith’s production last year they would not have had a 24-point /game offense ? With a badly injured defense. With a D healthy, a 24 point per game offense makes the 2025 Raiders a 10 win team by comparison. Our Oline is better since firing Luke getsy than SEA and we have the draft capital and free agent money to put together a respectable running game. We have a wide receiver one named Brock Bowers, a wide receiver two Jacoby Myers, and a slot receiver DJ Turner and Trey Tucker. I agree it’s not DK Metcalf or Ty Lockett, but they’re pretty good. So to address your question “What is the stupid organization doing?” They’re doing it by the numbers (analytics) getting better. The only choices I see out there for them to have made would have been choices with much higher risk like Ben Johnson who represents a second run at a first time head coach or any number of coaches that don’t have Pete’s resume. One thing I guarantee the Raiders will not be, a four- win team, with this crew in charge.
It’s a decent move, an improvement. Yes, we still have the worse QB in the division. We will finish a BETTER fourth. Largely because, contrary to what Pete said, they are doing a slow rebuild, or there would have been more FA signings. I’m fine with not over-paying, but I think there were teams doing okay in that regard. Accumulating compensatory picks is a good strategy for a perennial playoff team that drafts well. We aren’t there, and we’ll see how Spytek handles the reins on drafting. He’s been getting a lot of credit for building Tampa, but he was just a soldier, not the man making the call.
Geno Smith will be 35 in October. How many years do you think we’ll get out of him?
If you extend him, chances are that will mean losing O’Connell when his contract is up because why would he remain a backup when he can go elsewhere and start?
By that time, Smith will be DONE and we’ll be looking for another QB. Unless we get one in this draft, in which case, why then would you extend Smith?
This GM doesn’t have a clue, clearly.
Signing players who absolutely suck (Cappa, Johnson, etc etc) isn’t going to improve the team no matter how much they try to spin it as getting good value.
It’s all bullshit. You can’t get good value if the player you sign sucks.
Spytek let Mekhi Becton go to a divisional rival, the Chargers, for a song and a dance. That dude was the best available O lineman and would have filled a position of need for us.
What is going on with Spytek? Is this dude smoking crack on the down low?
Why couldn’t we sign Azeez Ojulari for $4 million like the Eagles did? Instead of giving a catastrophically injured Malcolm Koonce $12 million?
Does this make any logical sense to anyone at all?