Raiders banking on Smith delivering success

HENDERSON, Nev. — Geno Smith got paid.

Oh boy, did he get paid.

The 34-year old NFL veteran quarterback will earn $75 million over the next two years for reuniting with Pete Carroll, his former coach with the Seattle Seahawks, in Las Vegas with the Raiders following his signing a contact extension following the Raiders trading for him. If he hits all his incentives, it could go as high as $85.5 million. And according to ESPN.com, $66.5 million is guaranteed, good or bad.

“I think there is unfinished business,” Smith said Monday during his Raiders introductory press conference at the Intermountain Health Performance Center. “And I think, when people think about my story, Coach Carroll was a big part of that. He gave me an opportunity when not many people would have, and he saw the hard work that I was putting in. He saw the things behind the scenes that I do that allowed me to get this opportunity.

“But to be able to play for him, and again, to be a part of this organization, it means everything to myself and my family. I was just telling him I'll run through a wall for him, and he knows that. And I'll do the same for my teammates and for this organization. And so, I just want that to be kind of who I am, and I want that to be the statement of who I am as the quarterback of this team."

The Raiders are betting it works. If Smith can provided winning quarterback play and the Raiders can make the playoffs, it will have been worth it.

"He's going to bring us great stability and belief in the kinds of things that we stand for,” Carroll said. “His habits are so stellar. The way he works, the way he looks at the game, the way he looks at the challenges of it all, is exactly in line with the way we think. And so, he'll represent us in magnificent fashion.

“I think it gives us instant stability in a crucial spot. The history that we have and my understanding of G and how to help him be the best he can be, and he knows how to bring out the best in our system because he'll stand for the competitiveness and the things that we believe in.

“It's just a great fit, and I'm so thrilled,” Carroll continued. “This has been coming but (Monday) feels like the real deal. We're finally here together, sitting next to each other, and talking about getting out on the field and throwing a football around, and that's what we're all about. And so, we couldn't be more connected in that regard.

“I’d like to say that Geno went through a lot to get here, and there were a lot of years in there when he had to take the second seat in playing the quarterback position. But what I realized in him early on, not before we got him, but once we got him, got to know him, that he was able to take every single day with a clear thought that, 'I may play the very next play, and I'm not going to miss that opportunity.' And he did it for a number of years. I mean, not weeks, I'm talking for years playing behind Russell [Wilson], and he just never let up on that thought. And it was so impressive to me. As soon as we had the opportunity to put him in a position to take the lead, I couldn't wait. And he's been a winner ever since, and he's Comeback Player of the Year for the real deal reasons and here we are now poised to go do something really, really unique. So, it's fantastic that this has come together."

Can Smith elevate the Raiders to where they are Super Bowl contenders, and, at the very least, regular playoff participants? I’m not against the move to bring him in. In today’s NFL, quarterbacks are still functional at an advanced age. He’ll probably enjoy throwing the ball to Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers. And maybe the Raiders draft Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty and he treats the NFL the way he did the Mountain West and runs through and around people with impunity.

But the Raiders are paying a pretty steep price to find out, don’t you think?

Like everything in sports, both professional and collegiate, money is the driving and determining factor in everything. And like it or not, quarterbacks are a valued commodity in the NFL. And as such, they command very high salaries.

So I don’t blame Smith at all for getting paid. And it’s hard to find fault with the Raiders in paying him. After all, what choice did they really have? They simply couldn’t go to war come September with Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew once again battling to be the starter. That simply wasn’t going to work.

Did they overpay for Smith’s services? Yeah, they probably did. If he fails to deliver, it’s one more log of angst for Raider Nation to heap onto the fire of failed decisions.

But if Smith comes through, if he has the team playing meaningful games into January and the Raiders return to the postseason for the first time since 2021, nobody’s going to be kvetching about paying the guy $75 mil.

If you’re going to change the culture of an organization from losing to winning, it helps to have a guy at the most important position who has had tasted success.

"Yeah, when you think about stability, I think about two things. I think about consistency, and I think about integrity,” Smith said about what he wants to be defined by. ”And those are the two things that I hang my hat on. I want to be consistent; I want to be the same guy every single day. I want to be hard working. I want to be the first guy in, last guy out, and I want to do that whether someone's watching me or not. And that's where the integrity comes in."

Smith is coming off a highly successful season in Seattle, having thrown for 4,320 yards and completing 70 percent of his pass attempts. Still, the Seahawks failed to make the playoffs. But you can’t blame Smith for that.

His story is a little bit of life imitating art. You may remember the movie “Any Given Sunday” where the young quarterback leads his team out of the darkness into the daylight, then joins his coach who leaves for a new organization.

Maybe Geno Smith is Steamin’ Willie Beamen and Pete Carroll is Tony D’Amato. Maybe the Raiders find the kind of success the Miami Sharks did.

So let’s see what transpires in real life. It all sounded good Monday in Henderson. Let’s see how it looks come September inside Allegiant Stadium.