The Las Vegas Raiders will release former Seattle Seahawks Pro Bowl quarterback Geno Smith if they can’t trade him before the start of the new NFL league year next Wednesday, according to a Friday morning report by ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter.
ESPN sources: the Raiders are releasing last season’s starting quarterback Geno Smith, barring a trade before the start of the new league year. By releasing Smith, the Raiders will open up $8M in salary cap space while taking on $18.5M in dead money. pic.twitter.com/MZGLKJPEeX
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 6, 2026
The 35-year-old Smith was sent by Seattle to the Raiders in a trade last offseason, reuniting him with former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll in Vegas. The reunion didn’t go as planned, as the Raiders went 3-14 and let Carroll go at the end of his first and only season with the team.
Smith saw his numbers dip with the Raiders, throwing for 3,025 yards and 19 touchdowns with a 67.4% completion rate, plus a league-high 17 interceptions despite missing two games due to injury. His 34.1 QBR was 27th among quarterbacks in the NFL, a year after he was 21st with a 50.4 QBR and three years after he was seventh at 62.8.
The Raiders, who hired Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak late last month to replace Carroll as head coach, are expected to make Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza of the national champion Indiana Hoosiers the No. 1 pick in April’s NFL Draft.
A former second-round pick by the New York Jets out of West Virginia in 2013, Smith was an immediate starter with the Jets but did not succeed in the role and eventually became a backup with the Giants, Chargers and Seahawks. Following Seattle’s trade of Russell Wilson in 2022, Smith won Seattle’s starting QB job and resurrected his career, winning Comeback Player of the Year and leading the NFL in completion rate in 2022 in the first of two straight Pro Bowl seasons.
Though Smith played well as Seattle’s QB, the Seahawks were a middling team throughout his tenure as the starter. They went 27-23 in regular season games that he started from 2022-24, and lost his one playoff game with the team.
The Seahawks moved on from Carroll after the 2023 season, hiring Mike Macdonald as their new head coach, and the changes were just as drastic following Macdonald’s first season with Smith and star wide receiver DK Metcalf both traded away. With Sam Darnold as Seattle’s QB in 2025, he and Macdonald’s defense led the Seahawks to the NFC West title, the No. 1 seed in the postseason out of the NFC, and the second Super Bowl championship in team history.
Smith now enters an offseason QB market that is full of veteran options including Kyler Murray, Aaron Rodgers, Kirk Cousins, Joe Flacco and Russell Wilson.
Seattle Seahawks coverage
• Bump weighs in on potential Seahawks free agency decision
• Three nuggets from Seahawks GM ahead of free agency
• Report: Seahawks re-signing LB Drake Thomas on two-year deal
• A veteran free agent who makes ‘a lot of sense’ for Seahawks
• Brock Huard: A draft prospect who fits Seattle Seahawks’ mold