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6 hours ago
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Geno Smith has been through it all. Once written off as a backup, he’s now the guy in Las Vegas after the Raiders traded a third-round pick to Seattle for the veteran quarterback. A few weeks later, they doubled down with a two-year extension that could pay him up to $85.5 million.
Smith isn’t just a placeholder. He’s a proven starter coming off a season where he threw for a career-high 4,320 yards with 21 touchdowns while completing over 70 percent of his passes. That helped land him at No. 8 on Yahoo Sports’ early top 10 quarterback rankings for 2025.
New quarterbacks coach Greg Olson, who worked with Smith in Seattle, knows exactly what the Raiders are getting.
“He’s extremely competitive, intelligent, he’s accurate,” Olson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Got a lot of intangibles you like about him. Hard worker, great practice player. I can’t say enough good things.”
Olson says Smith is a better player now because of what he went through earlier in his career. He lost the starting job in New York, bounced around the league, and backed up Philip Rivers and Russell Wilson before getting another shot in 2022.
“When he was in that backup role, not only was he learning how to prepare, but he really embraced the cities he was in and the franchises he played for,” Olson said. “He took pride in being the best version of Geno Smith.”
He made that count in Seattle, earning NFL Comeback Player of the Year and back-to-back Pro Bowl selections. Now 34, Smith brings leadership, accuracy, and experience to a Raiders team trying to find stability at the most important position.
“He’s everything you look for as a coach,” Olson said. “He gives us a top-tier quarterback.”
After setting 33 records at West Virginia and building a legacy in Morgantown, Smith’s story is still going. And with the Raiders, he’s got a chance to add another chapter.
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