The Las Vegas Raiders might be thinking about their quarterback of the future right now with Indiana’s Ferndando Mendoza throwing five touchdown passes against Oregon in the College Football Playoff. He’s the favorite to be selected by the Raiders with the No. 1 pick.
Mendoza has gotten a lot of experience in college and has played in some big games, so he’ll likely be ready to lead the team as a rookie. That makes Geno Smith expendable. He led the NFL in interceptions this season and was closely tied to former head coach Pete Carroll.
With Carroll getting fired, Smith has lost his biggest supporter. According to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Raiders don’t seem to have plans to bring Smith back, and he might prefer it that way.
“I think that’s almost as foregone a conclusion as Pete Carroll was,” Bonsignore said of Smith on the “Vegas Nation First and 10” podcast. “Asking John Spytek about Geno Smith, and … I think he said he’s under contract and he’s a quarterback. Those are two facts. He wasn’t lying about that part of it. [Geno] is under contract for next year, and he does play quarterback …
“The way he played this year … I think Geno Smith wants out himself, maybe a clean slate if he even wants to continue to play football again. But I think Geno Smith has played his last game for the Raiders.”
Cutting Smith Doesn’t Cost Much
Smith’s one season in Las Vegas hasn’t been fun for the quarterback. The team lost a lot of games, he got sacked 55 times and was consistently heckled by fans. It’s easy to see why he’d want to play elsewhere in 2026.
He is under contract for two more years. If the Raiders cut him outright, they get saddled with an $18.5 million dead cap hit. That’s not a huge price to move on from a quarterback. It’s not ideal to pay a player nearly $20 million to not play, but it might be better for both sides if Smith goes to another squad.
The Case for Keeping Smith
While many are ready to end Smith’s Raiders tenure, there is an argument that they should keep him. Quarterbacks have never been more valuable, and there were several teams that had their seasons derailed in 2025 due to quarterback injuries.
As bad as Smith was in 2025, he does have value as a backup. He had issues with fans, but his teammates generally like him a lot and see him as a leader.
If Mendoza does get drafted and anointed the starter, Smith isn’t the type to make drama out of it. Plus, there’s also the fact that he could have value on the trade market. Would the Indianapolis Colts have rather traded a Day 3 draft pick to the Raiders for Smith instead of convincing Philip Rivers to come out of retirement? Probably. The Cincinnati Bengals likely would have traded for Smith instead of Joe Flacco after Joe Burrow got injured if he was availabe.
Right now, Smith doesn’t have value on the trade market, but the Raiders could take advantage of a desperate team later in the year.
Geno Smith Dealt Harsh Reality About Raiders Future: Insider