The Las Vegas Raiders have not been getting the kind of quarterback play they're needing and expecting from Geno Smith through the first five games of the 2025 NFL season. The experienced vet has thrown for six touchdowns and nine picks in five games and, again, is not performing to the standard that the Raiders anticipated when they traded for him in the offseason.
The Raiders also traded for Kenny Pickett during the preseason after Aidan O'Connell went down with an injury. After seeing the lackluster performances from Smith, however, it's not surprising that Raiders fans would want to see Pickett get a chance at showing what he can do on offense.
Well, Raiders fans, there's some hope for that to potentially happen! In Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano's latest buzz article on ESPN, Graziano said the Raiders could "possibly" turn to Pickett at some point this season.
"If the season spirals down the drain, could the Raiders look at Kenny Pickett? Possibly," Graziano wrote. "That's what the Browns were trying to do before they drafted two quarterbacks and Pickett got hurt in camp before landing in Las Vegas on a trade."
Raiders could turn to Kenny Pickett if offense continues to flounder
Pickett was a former first-round pick by the Steelers in 2022, but after not panning out there, he was traded to Philadelphia in 2024. Pickett won a Super Bowl as the backup to Jalen Hurts and then was traded to the Browns a little over a month later. When it was clear that he wasn't going to be the starter in Cleveland, the Browns traded him again, this time to Vegas.
The Raiders' plan was never to start Pickett, but that was when everyone thought Smith might show some of that talent he had while he was in Seattle with Pete Carroll. That has not been the case so far. Can Pickett really be that much worse than what we've seen from Smith in the first five games?
While Graziano did go on to say that the Raiders will likely stick with Smith this season, he had another quote that will be music to Raiders fans' ears.
"What's interesting to me is that the contract Smith signed with the Raiders after the trade doesn't really tie them to him beyond this year. He has an $18.5 million salary guarantee for 2026, after making $40 million this year," Graziano wrote. "If the Raiders cut him after this season, they'd have paid him $58.5 million for one (presumably disappointing) year. That's a lot, but as Jeremy said, this team wants to win soon. If absorbing $18.5 million in dead money next year to move on helps them do that, I doubt it would stand in the Raiders' way."
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This is the quote that should make fans a little more optimistic about the Raiders' plans at quarterback. If Smith continues to perform poorly, the team doesn't necessarily have to stick with him.
They can call the experiment a wash and move on from him at the end of the season and, with the likely high draft pick they'll have, they can either draft their next signal-caller and/or bring in another seasoned vet to try and steer the ship in 2026 and beyond.
It's still early enough in the season that Smith could potentially turn things around, but the Raiders should really consider benching him and turning to Pickett at some point if Smith doesn't start to play better.
This way, they can at least see if there's anything there with Pickett and determine if he's worth keeping around past this season, as he'll be a free agent next spring.