The 2025 season continues to play out exactly how Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider wanted it to. During the 2025 offseason, Schneider made multiple changes to the offense, and all now look brilliant. Sam Darnold was in, for instance, and Geno Smith was out.
Smith was traded to the Las Vegas Raiders, the new home of Smith's old coach in Seattle, Pete Carroll. Together, the hope was that the quarterback and the head coach could reset the Raiders' culture and help turn a mediocre franchise into a suddenly successful one. That didn't happen.
Entering Week 18, Las Vegas is 2-14, Carroll has a good chance of being a one-and-done coach with the Raiders, and the same might hold for Smith. He very well could have played his last snap with Las Vegas, as he will not play in Week 18.
Former Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith might be done with the Las Vegas Raiders
Near the end of Week 17, Smith suffered an ankle injury, but one wonders if his team would have been at all competitive if he had taken a chance on playing against the Kansas City Chiefs. One will never know. The Raiders have something bigger to play for, and Geno Smith would simply get in the way of that goal.
With a loss, Las Vegas would finish with the worst record in the NFL and have the top pick in the 2026 draft. That player, whoever it ends up being, will almost certainly be a quarterback. Quite likely, Indiana's Fernando Mendoza or Oregon's Dante Moore will be who Vegas selects.
Geno Smith signed an extension with the Raiders after the Seahawks traded him to Vegas in March, but the team can still get out of the deal and save some money. Releasing Smith would give the Raiders an extra $8 million, and also clear out a player whose attitude can be quite mercurial.
In a preseason game at Lumen Field between the Seahawks and the Raiders, Smith raised his middle finger to Seattle fans. Not classy, and the move likely made fans even happier that Smith was gone, and Sam Darnold was the new QB1.
Smith also raised his middle finger to Raiders fans during a game this season. Not exactly the right way to get fans to like a player. But Smith's bad temper is well known, and isn't needed on a team trying to start over and reset its culture.
A chance exists that Geno Smith has played his final game in the NFL. He was awful this season when he did play for the Las Vegas Raiders, and the Seattle Seahawks were happy to get rid of him before that. That's quite the precipitous fall for a quarterback who was in the Pro Bowl just two seasons ago.