Truth be told, when Geno Smith looks back at what landed him where he’ll be Tuesday—in a meeting room in Las Vegas, listening to an old coach of his again—he thinks of a talk he had with Seattle Seahawks GM John Schneider last summer.
Smith was heading into his sixth season with the team, his third as starter, and with new coach Mike Macdonald in place, he knew things were going to be different.
Along those lines, Schneider was open and honest with Smith.
Smith, in turn, steeled himself for what might lie ahead.
“Just based on that conversation, I kind of knew the direction the team was going,” Smith said Friday morning, after a workout in his hometown of Miami.
It wasn’t a bad talk. There was nothing sinister. Yet, Smith’s big takeaway was that Seattle wanted to lean into the young core it had built, partly with the capital that came back in the Russell Wilson trade of 2022, a trade that, ironically enough, cleared the runway for the former Jet, Giant and Charger to finally become a starting quarterback again.
In part, as a result of that discussion, Smith went into 2024 knowing that in ’25, he’d be looking to the Seahawks for a recommitment. Beyond just the money, he’d want them to show him that they saw him as their starter for the foreseeable future. Then, he led the Seahawks to a plus-.500 record for the third consecutive year, throwing for 4,320 yards, 21 touchdowns and 15 picks, in his first year in a new system.
And Seattle, Schneider and Macdonald, for their part, did take a pretty significant swing at getting Smith to renew his vows with the franchise after the season. But even with a solid contract offer on the table, the disconnect the quarterback felt over the previous summer remained.
The offer didn’t make an exception to the Seahawks’ general rule not to fully guarantee money in future years. It was also well shy of where Smith’s camp wanted to be in average per year. So, Smith’s camp didn’t bother to counter.
The big problem for Smith was how the proposal gave the team escape hatches.
By then, Smith saw he could have one of his own. And in this case, a couple of months later, pulling on that hatch has landed him exactly where he feels like he was meant to be.
Two and a half weeks to go until the draft, and we’ve got you covered in the MMQB this week. Over in the takeaways, you’ll find …
• How signs are showing the Tennessee Titans closing in on a decision with the No. 1 pick.
• Why the end might not be in sight for Roger Goodell as commissioner.
• What scouts are saying on Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter coming out of Colorado’s pro day.
And a whole lot more. But we’re starting here, with how Smith, at 34, found a new start in a new home, with a bunch of familiar faces.
Smith isn’t harboring ill will over how things ended in Seattle. This will be his 11th NFL season. He knows how things go. He’s also not going to be the guy to tell you that the conclusion of his time as a Seahawk, with his trade to the Raiders and reunion with Pete Carroll in March, wasn’t about the money.
But he will say it wasn’t only the money, which is proved out in that he accepted a deal in Vegas last week that wasn’t all that dissimilar from the one the Seahawks had offered him in the raw amount of money written into the contract.
“Obviously, they have young guys in the building that they want to step up and be leaders, and they got a new head coach last year,” Smith says. “And Mike was good for us, and I really enjoyed being with him for that season. But again, man, when you’re talking about business, and you’re talking about a quarterback who wants not only to get paid—every player wants to get paid—but to be respected, that’s the most important thing. It’s the respect factor.
“And I just felt like there was a disconnect there.”
The disconnect, again, wasn’t about where the Seahawks were, but where they were going.
So, Smith went through last year knowing the end could be coming. In a way, for him, it wasn’t dissimilar from how much of his career has gone. He played six consecutive seasons, from 2017 to ’22, on one-year deals, the final four of those in Seattle. He’d learned how to handle that and keep his focus where it needed to be.
But as part of that, he also knew when he needed to vent a little, and he found an unlikely sounding board over the course of the season—Carroll himself.
“I would call him whenever I got frustrated,” Smith says. “He talked me through things, and he still coached me. And I think that’s what makes him such a special man, is that he was coaching me even when he wasn’t my head coach. A lot of the things that he was telling me, a lot of conversations we had really kept me steady throughout the season, and kept my head on straight. Because, again, man, this is a team that I gave everything I had to …”
There were points when Smith and Carroll talked daily. There were points when they didn’t talk for a few weeks. Neither knew whether Carroll would ever get back into the NFL again.
Really, it wasn’t about that, which was the key for Smith.
Carroll wanted to help Smith, plain and simple. In explaining that, Smith simply says, “Coach Carroll, man, is a special guy and a special coach.” And one who was there when Smith needed him most.
“It was very frustrating last year, because as a team, we set goals for ourselves, and we didn’t achieve those goals,” he says. “And being a part of the team, being a quarterback, I take that right on my shoulders. And I feel like that’s my responsibility to make sure that stuff happens. And we weren’t able to reach our goals, weren’t able to get to the playoffs. That’s the ultimate goal, to give yourself a chance to go out there and win a championship. And that’s what frustrated me the most.
“And then, obviously, not having real security there, not feeling like you’re really a part of the future plans. There’s a lot to think about.”
Once the season ended, he had plenty of time to dive in on that.
Carroll was hired in Vegas on Jan. 24, and when contract negotiations went the way Smith figured they might last summer, Smith’s agent, Chafie Fields, laid out trade scenarios.
On a call, Fields told Smith that the Raiders were interested. So were two other teams.
The Seahawks wanted to do right by Smith—Smith still says now, “I had a lot of great teammates there, a lot of people in the building I love there, a lot of people in the city”—and believed Las Vegas might be able to give their quarterback what he was looking for. And while Smith wanted to consider all his options, and make a business decision, the pull he felt to the Raiders was real.
“I just thought the opportunity in Vegas, man, it was just too, too, too great to pass up,” he says.
By the end, it wasn’t just Carroll, either.
The new offensive coordinator in Las Vegas was Chip Kelly, whom Smith had first met as a recruit in the weight room at his South Florida high school. Kelly was trying to get the teenage quarterback to come to Oregon. He didn’t land Smith then, but the two built a rapport and loosely stayed in touch over the years.
As a result, Smith would watch Kelly’s teams, and had it in the back of his head that the idea of the partnership Kelly proposed all those years ago was “one that I’ve always wanted to explore. We never got the chance to be player-coach. But I’ve always wanted to explore that. We’ve always had a good rapport with one another.”
That went to another level last year when Kelly was named offensive coordinator at Ohio State, weeks after Smith’s outrageously talented cousin, Jeremiah Smith, arrived on campus.
The two connected again over that, as Jeremiah Smith posted a 76-catch, 1,315-yard, 15-touchdown freshman season in Columbus, and the Buckeyes won the national title. Geno was watching his cousin closely, of course. But he saw a whole lot more than just that.
“He not just coached Jeremiah, but that entire offense,” Smith says. “They had two 1,000-yard runners, they had two 1,000-yard receivers. I mean, they were very, very balanced. They lost two of the best O-linemen in the country and went out and won the natty. Watching that team and how he developed [quarterback] Will Howard, and how he got better throughout the season, you see it. … So seeing that firsthand, and all the schematic things that they’re trying to do to gain advantages, and now he’s bringing new wrinkles, up into the NFL game?
“He’s done this before and he’s doing it again, and I just think it’s gonna be a great thing.”
Then, there was the other relationship he wanted to explore—with the greatest ever.
Smith knew of Tom Brady’s involvement in the reimagination of the Raiders, following the league approving the seven-time champion as a minority owner of the franchise back in October. He’d come to find out, after he was traded to Vegas, how that involvement was anything but some sort of ceremonial thing.
Brady FaceTimed Smith right as the transaction with Seattle was being pushed over the goal line, telling him how he loved how Smith had come to master the game in his 30s.
“I’ve always really been hard on myself about being able to play the game without using all the physical attributes,” Smith says. “And from watching my tape, that’s something that he noticed, how I handle protections and can get in and out of plays. We ran a very intricate system [last year]. It was our first year in the system, but we didn’t hold back on anything. And I think that’s something that he recognized, he noticed. …
“Stuff from the neck up, decision making, leadership, just all those things are the things that Tom talked to me about reasons why they wanted me.”
Soon thereafter, Brady invited Smith over to his house in Miami to continue the discussion—on football, on what it took for Brady to play into his mid-40s (“I want to play many more years, so to have a guy right there who’s done it that I can just basically steal his regimen”) and on life as an NFL quarterback in general.
“We sat and talked for hours,” he says. “You’re sitting there, you’re like, ‘Man, it’s Tom Brady.’ But then, again, I mean, he’s got a hand in the organization that I’m playing for. There’s a lot of responsibility there.”
Smith’s taking that responsibility head-on.
Smith knows the assignment.
When he arrived in Seattle in 2019, he found the kind of football culture he never knew existed. Now, six years later, he lands in Las Vegas as a torchbearer for that culture while Carroll tries to recreate it in a new city.
As such, Smith has been aggressive in trying to generate the relationships he’ll need to pull the team with him. He and Maxx Crosby have been in constant communication—“I’ve been FaceTiming Maxx like crazy,” he jokes—to discuss how they’ll lead their sides of the ball in concert with one another. On Friday night, promising second-year lineman Jackson Powers-Johnson traveled to Miami for a few days with the quarterback, with plans for dinner that night and then on-field work on the quarterback-center exchange over the weekend.
“Seattle was a great situation for me,” Smith says. “But I think I found something maybe even better. I’m looking forward to getting to work on Monday.”
So if it was Carroll who drew him to the idea of Vegas in the first place—knowing that, since he was under contract with Seattle, he couldn’t fully control that—it’s been a little bit of everything since the trade that’s made it feel right.
Brady’s presence definitely helps. That Kelly happens to be on Carroll’s staff, to Smith, is a pretty incredible twist. And it’s interesting, too, that the GM who acquired him, John Spytek, just got done helping to build around a veteran quarterback, in Baker Mayfield, with a similar backstory to Smith’s own.
“I think if you believe in fate, you believe in things like that, then it’s like the stars are all aligning, right?” Smith says. “It’s all the things that you would want. I could see Pete, but all the guys that he would want to be a part of it? We’re here, we’re doing this thing together. And I was sick, man, when [Carroll] left Seattle—I was sick. And I didn’t see this coming. I think it’s going to be great for both of us.”
Smith’s faith in that was affirmed last week, with the agreement on a two-year extension worth $75 million in new money. Perhaps the most important nuance to the deal was the $18.5 million for 2026 that was fully guaranteed the minute Smith signed the contract—showing that the Raiders view this as more than just a one-year stopgap.
Of course, Smith’s well aware of the other end of the bargain, and Brady was direct on that with the Raiders’ new quarterback as the deal was being finalized.
“What I was talking to Tom about, this is something he said, and this is true: We don’t want to celebrate contracts. We want to celebrate wins,” Smith says. “And the thing is, that just kind of set the tone for the team. This is our quarterback. This is the direction we’re headed. And there’s no gray area there. Everything’s set in stone. And when you have that, when you can set a real plan, then you can get things going.
“As far as the contract, I’m very grateful, very thankful, very appreciative. But my main focus is go out there and win games, set the tone and be a better version than anyone’s ever seen of me.”
And now, with all these pieces in place, Smith can focus on that, and that alone.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Geno Smith Explains Why ‘Stars Are All Aligning’ with Raiders.