Seattle Seahawks fans likely feel different about Pete Carroll and Geno Smith, but after leaving the Pacific Northwest, both failed brutally in their one season with the Las Vegas Raiders. Now, Smith is on the move yet again, but returning to the place where he started.
Thankfully, that isn't with the Seahawks. Instead, Smith has been traded from Vegas to the New York Jets along with a swap of late-round draft picks. The move might have seemed odd as Las Vegas made clear that once the new league year began on Wednesday, March 11, Smith would be released. The Jets had a reason for the seeming madness, however.
New York thought that once the quarterback was released, he might have many potential suitors with QB-needy teams. Making a move to acquire him means that Smith will be under the Jets' control; the Raiders just had to pay a bulk of his salary. They would have had some dead cap for Smith anyway, so not much was lost.
Former Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith officially loses his latest job (and adds another)
As most Seattle fans can probably agree, the hope is that the mercurial quarterback will be somewhat humbled by one team not wanting him anymore and the other taking him as a bridge. Smith isn't overly valued; he's just a fill-in until something better comes along.
He probably doesn't think like that, though. In a preseason game before this past season, Smith flipped off Seahawks fans, showing that in only a few months, he had gone from playing for the team to disrespecting the people who ultimately pay his salary.
He did the same with Las Vegas. The quarterback flipped off Raiders fans during a regular season game when fans began booing yet another awful offensive performance. Smith wasn't entirely to blame, but his penchant for forcing passes into coverage and holding on to the ball too long certainly added to the problem.
No one should really expect him to change with the Jets, the team that originally took him in the second round of the 2013 draft. He battled physically with teammates and was eventually forced out. Not until 2022 with the Seahawks did he become a full-time starter again.
To be fair, he wasn't awful for a year or so. But the reason many teams never gave him a chance surfaced: He committed too many turnovers and played far too arrogantly.
His play was one reason that Pete Carroll had his coaching duties removed with the Seattle Seahawks. Smith was a reason Carroll was fired by the Raiders, too. In the end, 12s would still want Carroll to do well in the sport and in life. With Smith, many don't care if he ever succeeds in football.