Geno Smith already in line for Raiders extension

Out of all of the moves the Las Vegas Raiders have made during the offseason, few have received as much unanimous praise as the trade for quarterback Geno Smith.

Coming over from the Seattle Seahawks, Smith reunited with head coach Pete Carroll in Las Vegas to add some much-needed legitimacy to the Raiders. After frustrating play out of the quarterback position from Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell last season, Smith raises the floor of the Raiders to become a more competitive unit. His work has already earned him the admiration of general manager John Spytek.

“Obviously there’s a familiarity with Coach (Pete Carroll) and with Geno from Seattle, and really Geno played his best football for Coach there,” Spytek said. “When you’ve watched Geno through the years, he can throw the football with the best of any of them, honestly.”

However, Smith only has one year remaining on his current contract, meaning it did not take long for the topic of an extension to rear its head.

Can the Raiders lock Smith down for the foreseeable future?

Pro Football Focus’ Bradley Locker is among those believing Smith is in line for a major extension from the Raiders.

“The Raiders pulled off one of the bigger stunners in recent league memory when they traded for Smith before the start of free agency,” wrote Locker. “Smith’s 85.8 PFF passing grade over the past two years ranks sixth among qualified quarterbacks, and his 60 big-time throws rank fourth. Given that the Raiders parted with a third-round pick for the 34-year-old Smith, the logical next step would be to lock him down for at least two more years — above his $31 million cap hit this season.”

It has been reported that Smith and the Raiders are currently discussing an extension, but negotiations are taking a little longer than initially anticipated. According to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, the reason likely has to do with differences in guaranteed money.

“I don’t think there’s a holdup. It’s more of just negotiation,” wrote Breer.

“I also don’t think the Las Vegas Raiders move to land Smith without a strong feeling they could find common ground on an extension. The Seattle Seahawks, for their part, felt like they were doing Smith a favor with the trade in that Vegas had a better shot at doing a contract with him than Seattle did (they were far apart on the numbers at the end). But if you make me guess, I’d say the guarantees are probably what needs to be worked out.”

Negotiations have not gone on long enough to the point of concern, and the Raiders getting the deal done would erase any hang-ups as quickly and quietly as they appeared.