Geno Smith did not live up to expectations with the Las Vegas Raiders. After being traded there by the Seattle Seahawks for a third-round pick, many thought the team had gotten a steal. But he ended up leading the league in interceptions thrown and sacks taken in a disastrous 2025 campaign.
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It was surprising to watch Smith flop in Sin City. After all, this is a guy who had a late breakout four years ago but still found ways to get the job done in Seattle. As a starter, he went 27-22 with the Seahawks, even leading them to the playoffs one season. He also led the league in completion percentage in 2022, won Comeback Player of the Year, and was a Pro Bowler two years in a row.
Once in Las Vegas, Smith looked like a completely different version of himself. He threw a league-leading 17 INTs, took a league-leading 55 sacks, and went 2-13 as a starter. So, Smith may have simply had a bad season while leading a struggling offense last year. And that’s why many teams believe it was the Raiders who were holding him back and are starting to show interest in the 35-year-old veteran.
“Multiple teams have the opinion that Geno Smith was ‘held back’ by the Raiders offensive system last season and are eager to see him released,” Dan Graziano of ESPN reported.
There are plenty of teams that could use Smith in the upcoming season. He’s not going to get any run with the Raiders since they are set to draft Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick. So it would be smart for them to release the veteran QB and get off his expensive $37.5 million average annual salary. Although he’s still owed another $26.5 million, which he’s set to receive regardless of what happens this year.
: Multiple teams have the opinion that Geno Smith was “held back” by the Raiders offensive system last season and are eager to see him released, per @DanGrazianoESPN pic.twitter.com/q7SqRHeTde
— JPA (@jasrifootball) March 1, 2026
One team that has been linked to Smith is the Minnesota Vikings. Although they’ve been linked to every potential QB starting option after JJ McCarthy put together an abhorrent rookie campaign. Clearly, they are nervous about moving forward with just the 23-year-old as their franchise QB.
Other teams looking for QB stability for the upcoming season are the Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, and Arizona Cardinals. Two out of three of those teams have new head coaches and have been known to be badly run organizations. Smith is going to need to scrape the bottom of that barrel if he wants to have a starting job.
At the end of the day, Smith is an aging QB who isn’t highly sought after by contending teams. But he still has a chance to keep his NFL career alive if he can find the right situation. The question is, do teams really want to spend a season on him when they could be developing a younger QB for the future? It’s an interesting discussion some teams could be having.
