Geno Smith’s cryptic tweet has Raiders fans wondering if the end is near originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
With the expectation that the Las Vegas Raiders will take Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick in 2026, Geno Smith’s future with the franchise is very murky.
Smith was awful last season. Granted, it wasn’t all his fault with the disaster that the team’s offense was overall thanks to a lack of talent and terrible play-calling, but Smith did himself no favors by consistently making bad decisions.
Now, the expectation is the Raiders will cut or trade Smith, especially after firing the guy who picked him to be the quarterback, former Las Vegas head coach Pete Carroll.
While that has not been confirmed yet, some Raiders fans believe that Smith may have signaled his inevitable departure with a cryptic post on social media.
After a season he would most certainly like to forget, Smith would likely be thankful to be out of Las Vegas in 2026.
If the Raiders do make him available, either by trading or releasing him, Smith will draw interest from quarterback-needy teams hoping he can recapture the form we saw during his days with the Seattle Seahawks.
The problem with a trade is that Smith still has two more years left on his $75 million contract, which was signed after he was acquired via trade last offseason. Unless the Raiders are willing to pick up significant money, a trade is unlikely
If the Raiders do cut Smith before June 1, they could incur a dead-cap charge of $18.5 million while saving $8 million.
That would typically be a tough blow for any NFL team, but the Raiders have so much cap space that it wouldn’t make a dent in their offseason plans.
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