As Geno Smith continues to struggle this season, the inevitable conversation around the Raiders’ $75 million quarterback is the matter of this future with the organization.
Everyone knows Pete Carroll is a huge fan of Smith, but the leash can only be so long.
With no exciting backup quarterback on the roster, the Raiders could be in a complicated spot when the time comes to address the quarterback position after the season.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vinny Bonsignore said last week he believes Smith will be QB1 in Las Vegas next year, but if that doesn’t happen, a player that is almost guaranteed to be linked to the Raiders is Kyler Murray.
Raider Nation Radio host ‘JT the Brick’ talked about Murray on his flagship radio show on Monday, and while he was careful about the way he framed the conversation, he made some interesting statements.
Via the ‘JT the Brick Show’ on 920 AM in Las Vegas, JT first shared his thoughts on Smith…
“A lot of people that I talk to, not in the building, but people around the league and fans and all that, think that Geno [Smith] probably won’t be back because he’s not playing well. And I said, ‘No, no. Not so fast, my friend. Geno’s been signed to a lot of money. There are escape clauses to get out of every contract. But Geno’s here.’
And the reason why Geno’s still playing is they paid him a lot of money. They paid him a lot of money. He’s going to play, and the Raiders aren’t going anywhere this year. So they probably want to see what Geno can do the rest of the year. So with all of that happening now, I think it’s very interesting to see what happens in these final games in the second half of the season…”
From there, JT addressed Kyler Murray and didn’t hold back on his impression of Murray as a player…
“I was asked to go on a Phoenix radio station today, and I declined. They asked me if I wanted to talk about Kyler Murray to the Raiders. I said, ‘Oh, I love Kyler Murray. What are you talking about?’
Kyler Murray went to Oklahoma where my son went. Kyler Murray went to Oklahoma where Baker Mayfield went. Who was the guy in this city of Vegas that said, Baker Mayfield, Baker Mayfield, Baker Mayfield?
No one in the building… no one on this radio station, just me.
I said, Baker Mayfield, the 30 million is the greatest deal of all time. So now in Phoenix, some people out there are saying, what about Kyler Murray to the Raiders?” And I say, I work for the Raiders, I support Geno Smith. He’s the current quarterback of the Raiders. Say that’s an easy way out for me, I could give a crap what you think, I could literally give a crap. But Kyler Murray is a hell of a player. He’s only 28 years old.
He only played for one team. How many did Baker [Mayfield] play for? [How many] did Sam Darnold play with?
Kyler Murray has played on one, just one.
“[He] was drafted number one, and now they’re looking to give him away. He’s 28 years old, not 36, not 34, not 33. So you’re going to hear those rumblings, not from me, but I’m already getting him from Phoenix.
So I reached out to Howard Balzer and my connections in the NFL [and asked ‘What are you hearing about this?’ And not Howard, but other people told me, ‘Hey man, we’re looking to move Kyler Murray…
If you don’t think Kyler Murray is really good, you’re just so bad at being a fan. If you don’t think Kyler Murray, who was the number one pick in baseball and in football, and won the Heisman Trophy, if you don’t think he can play football, then you’ve lost your mind. You’ve lost your mind. He’s a very good football player. He’s playing on a bad team now. He’s coming off injuries. I’m not saying that you have to go get Kyler Murray. He’s a good player. Kyler Murray’s got a lot more upside than JJ McCarthy, Sam Darnold, Mac Jones, and a lot of other quarterbacks in this league who are playing lights out.”
The biggest issue with Murray right now is his contract.
The Cardinals might have dreams of trading Murray, but his contract comes with cap hits of $53 million and $43 million over the next two years.
It’s hard to imagine anyone will want to take on Murray’s contract after the season, and that means the Cardinals could be forced to release him.
At that point, the Murray would become a free agent and could sign anywhere.
Most likely, Murray would get similar interest in free agency to what Sam Darnold got a year ago, and if that’s the case, it will be interesting to see if the Raiders prefer to stick with Smith or roll the dice on a former first-overall pick in the draft.
x: @raidersbeat
Preference is draft Ty Simpson. Replace OC with Brian Daboll. Don’t have a clue what rah rah Caroll is up to…… does anyone know ?
Well JT the Richard there were reports that came out during the draft that Kyler had a lackadaisical attitude towards football. In fact, I believed the Cardinals wanted to put MINIMUM requirements for him to be at the facility studying film.
Kind of a red flag JT, is he wrong place, wrong time like say a Sam Darnold? Possibly, but rarely to teams give up on quarterbacks & of he isn’t winning in Arizona cuz of talent how does that change here?
So Raiders are going to have a midget for a quarterback and a midget for a running back next season?
and one at WR1.
I think Murray’s contract is near $50m next season, if he gets traded. That would be $80m for bad QB play in 2026, since they extended Geno. Might as well bring Russ in too, just keep shuffling them in and out.