It’s not a great day when Colin Cowherd is the voice of reason on the Raiders, but that seems to be where we are with his latest comments on the head coach and quarterback situations in Las Vegas.
Cowherd talked on Friday about the Raiders’ disappointing season, and placed blame two key members of the organization: Pete Carroll and Geno Smith.
Cowherd said what Raider fans (a lot of them, at least) have been trying not to believe about their team for a while.
Hosting The Herd on Friday, these were Cowherd’s comments on Carroll and Smith…
“When you pursue Geno Smith, the Raiders gave up a third round pick and paid him $66 million guaranteed. The Seahawks got Sam Darnold for no picks. He was a free agent and only paid him $55 million guaranteed. Seattle’s John Snyder [is] really smart, really good personnel guy.
The Raiders, they overpaid, over-pursued Geno Smith, who once again leads the NFL in picks. I mean, he can’t figure out basic pass protection. It’s bad. And right now, he’s arguably the worst quarterback in the league. The last two years, Geno Smith has seven more interceptions than the next highest interception quarterback. So it’s one thing to settle at quarterback. You should never settle at quarterback. It’s another to pursue the wrong one.
I understand sometimes you draft a quarterback, and you don’t really know how it’s going to pan out because it’s college football to pro. Geno has been in the league as long as I’ve been at FOX. You got a lot of tape on me. You got a lot of tape on Geno. You got to know after all these years in the league what a guy is and what a guy isn’t. The smart GMs are not pursuing [Geno], surrendering a third-round pick.
The Raiders could have had Darnold. Nobody in the world thinks Geno is better than Darnold. The other thing is Brock Bowers. As far as I can tell, I don’t have the game film, is open on every play. How does he have one reception? I don’t even understand it.
Pete Carroll had a full year away from football to modernize, to reflect, to look in the mirror, to take stock, to evaluate everything. And he went back to Geno Smith. That ain’t good. I mean, that’s old school Geno Smith. 27 picks in the last two years, seven more than the next guy. So the Raiders have earned fourth place. And the modern NFL, if you are tone deaf to quarterback, you’re tone deaf to winning.
And again, it’s not like Geno didn’t have a resume. You didn’t need to go to West Virginia sophomore year to look at film. You could have gone to last year and Pete had a year off to reflect. Offensively, I don’t even know what the Raiders are.”
For the full monologue, skip to the 5:20 mark below…
Don’t forget our minority owner who said Darnold can’t play. Of course, this is the same guy who can’t be bothered to attend our games & yet Mark wants him to run everything.
Mark is such a moron. He doesn’t want the responsibility but he wants to get to play owner.
The biggest mistake was turning over football operations to a rookie, Brady. The second was hired such an old HC, that the game may have passed him by. They didn’t sack him in Seattle bc he was winning. Once again, an enormous error by Mark Dummy Davis!
Everything Cowherd said is true, we were fleeced and sold a bag of damaged goods. I don’t understand how anyone thought this would be a good move on the Raiders part. He was horrible when drafted by the jets and had one decent year in Seattle and people now thought he was a tier one qb. I don’t get it I’ve been saying from day one that we are f**ked and guess what, we are.
Each comment here is spot on. The good news here is that when you are as down, as we are, there is only one way to go. Whether it’s Brady or Mark Davis both have to acknowledge that this, current version of the Raiders, is a total disaster. Why? Because what is undeniable is that with all the money, that the Raiders have, to spend on free agents, the “brain thrust,” of the Raiders can’t seem to properly evaluate managerial personnel or effective players. I know, or at least would like to believe, that something is going to change, within this organization. The only question is whether it will be for better or worse. Thus far, it has decidedly been for the latter.
“The good news here is that when you are as down, as we are, there is only one way to go.”
Never underestimate the power of this franchise to find a lower bar, never, it’s uncanny.
Spot on. 8 playoff appearances in 40 years. One consistent element during that time is the Davis family ownership. Hate to cross sports but I tried to find a parallel of these same circumstances: a once great, proud, winning organization that’s stunk up the joint with very few playoff appearances. And I found it in the Baltimore Orioles. They are an exact match to the Raiders. Sorry to go off on a tangent but I’m 48 years old and now for the vast majority of my life the Raiders have not been a playoff team. Hell even the Vikings, although they’ve never won a Super Bowl, give their fans more hope just through making the playoffs a lot more during that same span.
Each comment here is spot on. The good news here is that when you are this far down, as we are, there is only one way to go. Whether it’s Brady or Mark Davis both have to acknowledge that this, current version of the Raiders, is a total disaster. Why? Because what is undeniable is that with all the money, that the Raiders have, to spend on free agents, the “brain thrust,” of the Raiders can’t seem to properly evaluate managerial personnel or effective players. I know, or at least would like to believe, that something is going to change, within this organization. The only question is whether it will be for better or worse. Thus far, it has decidedly been for the latter.
Hell yes I agree with him! It’s time for Pete Carroll and Geno Smith to go, that quarterback doesn’t know what he’s doing on the field his interceptions are completely his fault and majority of sacks are his fault to. It’s time to start playing the rookies and finding out what the Raiders have on the benches. Pete Carroll doesn’t know what the offensive line doing and moving the center with a guard id real stupid, get rid of those clowns coaches and bring in someone else to get ready for next season. That would help immensely!
He’s right on everything. Bowers is open every play but doesn’t get the ball.brxause Geno Smith can’t read a D. Geno is done. Carroll is done. If Carroll isn’t fired at the end of this season, then Spytek should also be done.
Never thought I’d see the day when I couldn’t argue with Cowherd. The Raiders are probably boned as long as Davis, Brady or Carroll are making the major decisions
A hearty YES! to all of above comments. The owner’s man crush on Brady could be the most debilitating relationship in the NFL. I think Jerry in Dallas is more senile, but at least his expiration date is coming soon. Pickett is so bad that the coach went with a one legged Geno Smith? And we traded for that guy too? We traded a 3rd round and 5th round for crap, got a 4th & 6th round for a proven NFL WR. Daniel Jones, Aaron Rodgers, Sam Darnold, Joe Flacco, Jaxson Dart, all QB’s we passed on, and could have had w/o draft compensation, all have won more than Geno this year. Except Flacco, but Cincy defense can’t hang, although I do wonder how that matchup would playout.
Right now the Las Vegas Raiders are just an incompetent football team starting with the owner on down to the coaches