After the Las Vegas Raiders traded for Geno Smith, there was a good chance that the quarterback would get a new deal. After just a few weeks, the Raiders have decided to give the contract extension that he wanted, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.
“Sources: TheRaiders and QB Geno Smith have agreed to terms on a new deal to better compensate him for his play after the blockbuster trade,” Rapoport wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “It’s a 2-year, $85.5M max value extension with $66.5M guaranteed for Geno Smith.”
Many thought that Smith would get around $40 million in his extension, and he got close to $43 million annually. There were also thoughts that the Raiders may not even try to extend Smith, especially due to the fact that Tom Brady is in the building.
“They can franchise him twice, so why would they lock themselves into him unnecessarily?” an exec said via The Athletic's Mike Sando. “Tom Brady is not going to rip it up and give him $45 million a year. They should go year to year.”
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It looks like those rumblings turned out not to be true, and the biggest problem was when the deal might come, but it seems better that it happened sooner rather than later.
The Raiders seem to set a quarterback for the next few years, and now they can focus on what they want to do in the NFL Draft. With the No. 6 pick, the Raiders have a few options they can go with, but it almost depends on what teams ahead of them do. Someone like Shedeur Sanders could still be on the board and he can give the Raiders future stability at the quarterback position. The Raiders could also draft someone like Travis Hunter, who wants to play both sides of the ball.
It's safe to say the Raiders have good problems, and they should be way more competitive than they were last season.