The 2025 Las Vegas Raiders season has been a masterclass in dysfunction. As far as Geno Smith is concerned, he’s become the face of that failure—fair or not. It comes with the territory of getting “paid the big bucks,” as he once put it.
The irony is evident in the increasing calls to trade him for a late-round pick, a conditional flyer, or any option that offers a way out. It’s true that Smith has struggled, and he hasn’t lived up to his contract. But pretending he alone sank a 2-13 operation is the kind of selective memory that keeps this franchise trapped in the same loop.
What happened to Geno Smith this season?
Smith’s accuracy has evaporated at the worst possible time, and his league-leading interceptions are not simply byproducts of a collapsing pocket. Some of the mistakes are his, full stop. The idea that any quarterback, regardless of age, could succeed behind the league’s worst offensive line, throwing to a group of wide receivers that are among the weakest in the league, in an offense where the coordinator was fired for using plays that supposedly weren’t in the playbook, is almost laughable.
Rebuilds expose quarterbacks. They do not create them.
This is the context conveniently scrubbed from the “trade Geno for whatever you can” rhetoric. A veteran quarterback with playoff experience and upper-tier leadership traits has value, even if diminished. Whether that is worth a late-round pick or simply a clean release remains to be seen, but there is no scenario in which Smith’s departure magically resets the trajectory of the franchise. Only a rookie quarterback can do that, and even then, history suggests the environment matters as much as the talent.
Do the Raiders ship him out?
Which brings the Raiders to the real point: the chance at a franchise passer. In a thin class, Fernando Mendoza and Dante Moore are the only two who plausibly justify a top-two selection. These opportunities do not come along often, and Las Vegas cannot blink.
Smith still has value as a bridge quarterback—an adult in the room while a rookie develops—and he might even be the best option if the trade market turns into a clearance rack. But he cannot be framed as the villain of this collapse. He failed this season, yes. The Raiders failed him long before that.
And the reality is he could still function on a team with a legitimate offensive line. He did not suddenly forget how to play. Mostly. Smith is not the future, but he was never the sole problem. If Las Vegas misdiagnoses that again, the next quarterback—rookie or otherwise—will be walking into the same outcome.
*Top Photo: Ramble Illustration/Getty Images