An All-Time favorite guy reunites with the one of the best motivators in football. At least, that’s how Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll and new-Raiders quarterback Geno Smith view each other.
“He’s taught me so much,” Carroll once said of the now-34-year-old signal caller. “I admire [Smith] for the way he’s handled the competitive part of this thing. He’s taught us about belief in yourself and how powerful that is. As clear as an illustration as anybody that I can ever remember.”
That’s one of the few reasons why Geno Smith is, in Carroll’s own words, one of his “All-time favorite guys.”
And as for Smith, Pete Carroll is a coach who he idolized before getting the chance to play for him. “I always wanted to play for coach Carroll,” the West Virginia alum said. “I was hoping I could get a USC offer coming out of high school; that didn’t really happen.”
As it turns out, playing for Carroll is everything Smith thought it would be. “He’s one of the best motivators I’ve ever been around,” Smith explained.
Now, the two reunite in Sin City as members of the Las Vegas Raiders organization. It’s the second chapter of a quarterback-head coach duo who posted a winning record both years together with the Seattle Seahawks.
Pete Carroll and Geno Smith reunite with the Raiders: How it happened
It’s only natural Pete Carroll would’ve wanted one of his “All-time favorite guys” upon joining the Raiders. Especially when that player is a good one, and plays a position that Sin City is in need of.
Carroll had made it clear he was looking to build a team ready to win immediately since his first day in Las Vegas; a veteran under center was inevitable. And Smith was always the player who made the most sense..
..for the Raiders.
For the Seahawks, however, it didn’t make much sense to move on from their franchise quarterback. And, they didn’t want to. The goal was to keep Geno Smith as their starting signal caller, just as Seattle’s head coach Mike Macdonald said in February, and just as their general manager John Schneider reiterated at the annual NFL Combine.
But, although that was the plan, things don’t always go as planned. The Seahawks learned that the hard way as extension talks with Geno Smith hit a wall and never seemed to progress forward.
From there, Seattle was left with a choice: Roll with Smith for the rest of the year and lose him to free agency – and risk Smith sitting out as he had one single year left on his contract – or get something for him while you still can. The Seahawks chose the latter, settling for a late third-round pick that originally belonged to the Detroit Lions.
It is the same pick that the Raiders received from the Jets by way of the Davante Adams trade. Meaning, Las Vegas essentially swapped Davante Adams for Geno Smith.
An elite deep ball: One of the many talents of Las Vegas’ new QB1
It’s no secret that the Raiders have needed a quarterback who can let it fly for, at a minimum, two seasons now. Neither Jimmy Garoppolo, nor Brian Hoyer, nor Aidan O’Connell, nor Gardner Minshew was even moderately close to adept in this area. This led to offenses that struggled to open up and limited overall offensive explosiveness.
For reference, Minshew attempted nine passes of 20-plus yardage in 2024 (38th-most in NFL) while O’Connell attempted 35 such passes (27th-most).
Smith, on the other hand, attempted 65 passes 20-plus yards downfield (8th-most) while completing 30; the fourth-most downfield completions in the National Football League this past year.
Such deep-ball efficiency is nothing new for Geno Smith. In 2022, during his first season back as a full-time starter, Smith earned the second-highest completion percentage on passes of 20-plus yardage (47.6%). His 41.3% ‘big time throw’ percentage ranked highest league-wide as well, as did his 14 touchdowns.
2023 was just another year in which Geno Smith posted the highest big time throw percentage on deep throws. On passes 20-plus yards downfield, Smith had a league-leading big time throw percentage of 38.2%.
Note: A big time throw is defined as one with “excellent” ball placement and timing via Pro Football Focus. These are typically done in tight windows that require precise accuracy. Smith was better than anyone at this when going deep in 2022, and once again in 2023.
2024 welcomed more deep success. With nine touchdowns on such throws, only two quarterbacks league-wide bested Smith in this category. His 46.3% completion percentage on these throws was the third-highest.
This efficiency helped D.K. Metcalf become arguably the best deep-ball receiver in 2024. Among all pass-catchers last season, Metcalf ranked first in catches (16), fourth in yards (486), and second in touchdowns (5) on throws 20-plus yards out.
A more suitable situation with Pete Carroll and the Raiders
As a whole, 2024, Smith’s lone year in Seattle without Carroll, was his worst as a Seahawk. Some of that might’ve been getting adjusted to a coach who wasn’t Pete Carroll. Most of it was certainly due to an offensive line that couldn’t have been much worse.
Smith was pressured on 38.5% of snaps last season; the fifth-most in the National Football League. But sometimes pressures aren’t an offensive lineman’s fault. Sometimes a quarterback holds onto the ball for too long, moves out of the pocket prematurely, or tries to make something out of nothing.
Luckily, Pro Football Focus puts an emphasis on these variables in their pressures system, noting the percentage of pressures that are the fault of the quarterback and what percentage is the fault of the offensive line.
As for Smith, 88.2% of pressures he faced this past season were the fault of his offensive line. No quarterback’s offensive line had a higher percentage of pressure fault than that.
In fact, among every quarterback who’s totaled at least 1,000 pass attempts over the past three years, Smith faced a higher clip of ‘quick pressures’ – a pressure that took place in no more than 2.5 seconds – than any other player league-wide (18.1%), as per Next Gen Stats.
Yikes.
Is it any wonder why the Seattle Seahawks were called the 31st-best offensive line in the league this past season via PFF?
While the Raiders ranked 26 of this same list, early struggles are the cause. Kolton Miller started his season worse than any offensive lineman league-wide, allowing six sacks from Weeks 1-4. Miller finished his season in typical fashion, however, going Weeks 12-18 as the fourth-highest graded tackle throughout the NFL (83.2).
Powers-Johnson struggled at guard while Andre James had a tough time at center. But once Powers-Johnson took over at center in Week 9, he never looked back. The then-rookie was one-of-five centers to have a 70-plus grade as both a run- and pass-blocker from Week 9 onward. This led Jordan Meredith to take over at guard, who was the 15th-highest graded guard in this timeframe (76.9).
Paying Geno Smith
Smith didn’t come to Sin City with a new contract, but that doesn’t mean he won’t soon get one.
When a player is on their way out due to contractual issues, the team trading for that player gets in touch with their agent. Does that player want to play for this team, and if so, what are they looking to receive contract-wise? These are the questions that get asked so the team trading for the player doesn’t find themselves in the same boat as the team currently trading that same player.
That in mind, you can bet the Raiders have a good idea of how much Smith is looking for even though a new deal hasn’t yet been worked out.
As per multiple reports, Smith is looking for a contract in the range of $40-$45 million annually. That’s a lot of money for a quarterback.
Well, it was in 2020. In 2025, not so much.
A contract worth $40 million per year would actively make Geno Smith the third-lowest paid quarterback on a multi-year deal who isn’t on a rookie deal. Baker Mayfield and Derek Carr at $33.3 million and $37.5 million per year, respectively, are the only two signal callers within these parameters with a lower annual salary.
Times have changed, right?
With the reworked deals of Josh Allen and Matthew Stafford, $45 million would keep Geno in the same spot, albeit tied with some others.
Not only is $45 million per season fair quarterback pay in 2025, but anything less is almost unreasonable.
If Pete Carroll and the Raiders do give Smith $45 million annually, it’s a bargain. Especially as the years go on, and contracts continue to trend more and more towards an unthinkable $100 million annually.
In any case, Geno Smith is now the Raiders starting quarterback. Sin City got a good one, too.
*Top Photo: My Northwest Sports
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