When the Raiders traded for Geno Smith a few weeks back, the assumption was that a contract extension would follow. It's hard to imagine a world where anyone involved would make the move without some sort of agreement that an extension was also a part of the plan, and Smith's set to be an unrestricted free agent next offseason.
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And yet, there's been a suspicious lack of progress – or even reporting – on when that extension may happen, or what it may look like. (Maybe suspicious is too strong a word, but being a tad over-dramatic never hurt anyone.) That changed (see?!) this week, when Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer chatted a little bit about where things stand in a recent league-wide "mailbag" that hit the internet on Wednesday morning.
Albert Breer still seems confident that Geno Smith will sign an extension soon
"I don’t think there’s a holdup. It’s more of just negotiation," he said. "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."
I love Breer bending over backwards to try and make a distinction between "hold up" and "negotiation." That's peak agent-speak semantics, baby. The rest of his answer, though, makes plenty of sense – it's not like either side is probably in all that much of a rush, which isn't that out of the norm for exclusive-negotiations like this. There's a lot on the front office's plate right now, and I'd guess that draft stuff is probably taking a slight priority at the moment. If Albert Breer isn't concerned, I'm not concerned. Believe me, I know how that sounds.