What Carroll Displayed in Raiders' Week 10 Loss

There are a lot of questions for the Raiders moving forward, and there's no ideal answer for most of them. Geno Smith was clearly injured at the end of the game, and yet, the Raiders still trotted him out there and expected him to play well against a historic Broncos defense.

This wasn't only player negligence on behalf of the Raiders coaching staff, as Smith was clearly unable to run comfortably, which led to him being a statue in the pocket and getting rocked by multiple Broncos defenders. It also gives a sneak peek into the mind of Pete Carroll, who had a chance to sub in a backup for their quarterback, who's been struggling all season long, but opted to go for an injured Smith over a healthy Kenny Pickett.

Smith wasn't playing the worst, so it's understandable why Carroll would think he gives them their best chance of winning, but he's shown absolutely no faith in Pickett's ability, and that is scary to me. He's now forced to make a decision at quarterback as Smith left the game questionable to return, and will likely be out for some time.

Pickett and Aidan O'Connell will compete to see who takes the starting job away from Smith. Any other head coach would've benched Smith by now, who continues to throw interceptions. Carroll's hesitance to name another starter shows that he's not confident their backups give them a sliver of a chance better than Smith at winning, which is crazy.