Raiders' Geno Smith Zeros In on Bears Showdown

Q: Is it difficult when you're an athlete at your level, when your body doesn't respond because you want to do something so badly? 

Smith: "Yeah, I mean, anytime you're not performing to your maximum capabilities, I think you're going to always try to find it; you're going to try to find that and try to seek it. But to me, like I said, from what I've seen, I think he's doing a great job. And I think we just all have to do a better job of keeping him involved, getting him involved, and then obviously doing a better job as a whole." 

Q: What have you thought of Ashton Jeanty's learning curve in the NFL and how he's progressing through that? 

Smith: "I think he's right where he needs to be, man. I think we have to help him, I mean, it's my job to help him. I hate that obviously he's going to put a lot of pressure on himself, but he's not out there alone. It's 10 other guys out there that have got to do their jobs and help him. And so, I take great responsibility in making sure that Ashton [Jeanty] is, first of all in the right head space, which he is. 

“And also, he's got the ability to go out there and make plays. And so, I've got to make checks, put him in position to go out there and make plays. I've got to do a better job to make sure that he's out there showing us what he can do. Because when he gets an open field, man, he's hard to stop. So, we've just got to get him into some more space and allow him to do his thing." 

Q: As leader of the team, how do you make sure that all the guys in the locker room don't get frustrated by a loss like you saw on Sunday, and stay in this in the right head space and go forward? 

Smith: "Yeah, I think we have great leadership in this locker room. I think we have a great coaching staff and a bunch of guys that are really just focused on getting better every single day. And I think if you take that your approach to it, if you just focus on getting better, you block out the outside noise, you don't think about expectations, because that could be to your detriment. You'll have a shot to do some great things. I think for everyone in this locker room, we're just focusing on this next game, and how can we get better today in practice, first of all, and then go into the next game with the right mindset, execute our game plan the way that we know how and get this thing done."