Las Vegas Raiders general manager John Spytek and head coach Pete Carroll revealed during this week’s NFL owners meetings that the club is “working on” a contract extension for recently acquired quarterback Geno Smith.
For a piece published Wednesday, Mike Sando of The Athletic shared that at least one NFL team executive isn’t convinced Raiders minority owner Tom Brady will sign off on the club committing money to Smith beyond the 2025 season.
“They can franchise him twice, so why would they lock themselves into him unnecessarily? Tom Brady is not going to rip it up and give him $45M a year,” the executive said. “They should go year to year.”
On March 26, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated wrote that the Seattle Seahawks “felt like they were doing Smith a favor with the trade” to the Raiders “in that Vegas had a better shot at doing a contract with him than Seattle did.” That’s all well and good, but it’s worth mentioning that Smith is already signed through the 2025 season. Thus, the Raiders could enter the upcoming draft searching for his eventual replacement.
Specifically, Brady has a relationship
with Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders. Some continue to believe the New York Giants will make Sanders the draft’s third pick on the night of April 24, but others think he will fall to the Raiders at No. 6.
“Getting Geno was as good as they could have done in their situation,” a different unnamed executive said. “They aren’t getting a quarterback they feel confident in where they are picking in the draft (No. 6). They get a guy who has won.”
Meanwhile, Raiders reporter Vic Tafur of The Athletic noted on Wednesday that “Brady is not currently as actively involved as he was when the Raiders picked a GM, coach and quarterback (he was unable to land Matthew Stafford and was not a Sam Darnold guy), but he is expected to be in the draft room on April 24 and is reachable until then.”
Darnold signed a three-year, $100.5M contract with the Seahawks early in free agency.
According to Pro Football Reference, Smith ended the 2024 season ranked 22nd with a 54.1 adjusted QBR and 19th with a 93.2 passer rating. Those numbers may help explain why Brady wouldn’t want to extend Smith’s contract, but one wonders how the 34-year-old would react if he still doesn’t have a deal done by the start of mandatory minicamp practices later this spring.
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