Raiders, QB Geno Smith accepts an extension of two years of value up to $ 85.5 million: sources

Las Vegas Raiders and the quarter-Arrière Geno Smith accepted an extension of two years worth $ 85.5 million, according to team and league sources. The agreement has a basic value of $ 75 million in new money and an additional $ 10.5 million dollars of incentives related to the performance of the team. It also includes $ 66.5 million guaranteed for Smith, according to a league source. He is now under contract throughout the 2027 season. NFL Network was the first to report news from an extension.

Last month, the Raiders exchanged the bottom of their two choices of the third round of 2025 (n ° 92) at the Seattle Seahawks for Smith, who entered the last year of his contract.

Smith was always expected to get a new agreement shortly after the end of trade. He received an alignment bonus worth 16 million dollars on March 16, which bloated his ceiling from 2025 to 31 million dollars. Smith extension should reduce this number. With the extension, it is mainly now on a $ 106 million contract over three years. This gives Smith an average annual salary of 35.3 million, which ranks 17th among the quarters of the NFL (just below Derek Carr and above Sam Darnold), according to the ceiling.

Coach Pete Carroll said at the NFL League annual meeting on Monday that “we are working on it”, when asked for a potential extension for Smith. Three days later, the raiders entered Smith while their starter goes ahead.

“Get Geno was a really important part of this puzzle that we are looking for,” said Carroll on Monday. “We have a guy who is such a big worker who has grown so much throughout his career, through so much and to overcome so much. I love the way he tackles the game. He is serious. He is competitive. He works his tail. He is a great leader in this regard. He leads the guys by the way he takes the game. And he is talented.

“It is worth mentioning that the guy was seated for about six years. And at that time, n ° 1, he did not get wear and tear, which is why he moves so well and he runs very well, but he took the game in a way that was really very impressive. And I watched him for four consecutive years, and he never missed this opportunity to focus on this way.

General manager John Spytek did not work with Smith before, but has developed an appreciation for his game from afar. This, in addition to the familiarity of Carroll with Smith, has traded for the quarter of the Arrière. And although the extension took time to meet – the raiders officially exchanged against Smith on March 13 – it was always going to be done.

That being said, it is always possible that raiders can write a quarter of a quarter in the first round of the 2025 draft later this month. They hold choice n ° 6 in the first round, but they remain open to exchange or exchange, according to league sources. They also have choices n ° 37, 68, 108, 143, 180, 213, 215 and 222 this year and have all their future choices, so that they also have the resources necessary to go higher in the first round to take a quarter.

“From the point of view of team consolidation, I don’t think it changes our approach,” Spytek said on Monday. “We are deeply in the evaluation of the quarters in this class, and we will stay in there … We could take one anywhere.”

Smith, 34, led the Seahawks to a 10-7 file last season, establishing franchise records in one season with a percentage of completion of 70.4%, 407 completions and 4,320 yards by the pass. The Seahawks said they wanted to bring him back, but their offer was below the $ 45 million that Smith was looking for each year, and general manager John Schneider said his camp had not been counterpartable.

He had no problem finding a volunteer trading partner in the raiders, who had just lost a trade at the quarter of a quarter of Los Angeles Rams Matthew Stafford and having a new coach in Carroll who was close to Smith when they were in Seattle together. (In 2023, Carroll called Smith “one of my favorite guys of all time”))

According to the sources of the League, the confidence of the brain of the raiders, Tom Brady, Carroll and Spytek, had mixed feelings on Darnold, and decided that Smith was the best option. Even at the cost of choosing the third round and a higher salary. (Darnold, in the end, was plan B of the Seahawks if Smith wanted too much money.)

The offensive coordinator of raiders, Chip Kelly, never led Smith, but he tried to do so. At the time when Kelly was an offensive coordinator of Oregon in 2008, he offered Smith a scholarship when he left the school. Smith pushed Oregon, chose Virginia-Western and became a second round choice in 2013.

After the raiders missed their quest for staff, Kelly was one of the raiders’ meetings that led them to pursue the acquisition of Smith, according to sources from the League. Kelly has a malleable offensive system that can work well with a variety of different types of quarters, but Smith, in particular, is an ideal adjustment.

Smith is intelligent, precise and mobile. He has a strong arm, a high football intelligence and an excellent consciousness of the pocket. As much as he can be at best opponents with his physical capacities, he can do the same with his mind. Although it is far from perfect – it overturned the ball too often in 2024 – it has the qualities to direct the Kelly offensive at a high level.

Smith will be the seventh quarter of the Raiders to start in a match since the team went from the leader in the passes of Franchise Carr after the 2022 season. How long will Smith take place as a starter? He will be 35 years old in October and, while quarters play longer than ever, he is much closer to the end of his career than the beginning of this one. At one point earlier than late, the raiders still have to identify their quarter of the future.

Spytek and Carroll build the list with an available mindset the best player, but an argument could be advanced so that it will better respond to another position of need, of which there are many, in the first round. They could justify the search for a caliber ball carrier, a receiver, a guard, an offensive tackle, a defensive tackle or a corner. Of course, they could do it in the first round while taking a quarter in a later round of the draft.

“We are trying to take it as far as possible as soon as possible,” said Carroll. “I’m not looking for a period of grace. … I don’t think at all this way.”

(Photo: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)