Did Raiders GM give hint of draft plans with Geno Smith comments?

Some analysts and reporters who have posted mock drafts throughout March have linked the Las Vegas Raiders with a quarterback, even though the Raiders acquired veteran Geno Smith from the Seattle Seahawks earlier this month. 

Raiders general manager John Spytek may have hinted at his draft plans during a recent appearance on the "Upon Further Review" podcast through his comments about Smith. 

"When you’ve watched Geno through the years, he can throw the football with the best of any of them, honestly," Spytek said, as shared by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. "I mean, you watch some of the throws he makes over and over again downfield, you know, short, intermediate. The touch is there, the arm strength is there."

Rumors about the Seahawks possibly trading Smith to the Raiders popped up before the new league year opened on March 12, primarily because he played under Las Vegas head coach Pete Carroll from 2019 to 2023, when Carroll was Seattle's coach. 

NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated mentioned in his March 26 mailbag that the "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." 

Smith is in the final year of the three-year deal he signed in March 2023.

Spytek added that he liked that Carroll could "swear by the player, the competitor, the worker [and] the leader" Smith is because the coach had "a front-row seat" to his development with the Seahawks. 

Florio noted that money and "using or not using a top-10 draft pick on a quarterback next month" will give outsiders the information they need to know about the club's commitment to Smith.

Specifically, Las Vegas (overall pick No. 6) is routinely named a potential landing spot for Colorado's Shedeur Sanders because Sanders has a relationship with Raiders minority owner Tom Brady. It's also possible that the Raiders could trade back up into the first round to keep a team such as the Seahawks from drafting Ole Miss' Jaxson Dart.