The Las Vegas Raiders ended their four-game losing streak with a 20-10 win over the Tennessee Titans in Week 6. Although unimpressive, it was the kind of victory you don't apologize for, and the core of the winning formula was simple: make fewer mistakes than one of the league's worst teams.
The mission was accomplished on that latter front, as the Raiders' offensive coordinator, Chip Kelly, took his acknowledgment of head coach Pete Carroll's criticism and created an ideal plan for the game against the Titans.
It's also fair to say, and Kelly surely knows, that the offensive game plan against the Titans will not be transferable to most opponents. Even with that in mind, and with Carroll continuing to defend him, Geno Smith still had one awful throw that resulted in an interception against Tennessee.
Bad quarterback play can't be navigated around sometimes, and Smith is still among the worst-performing signal callers in the league during the 2025 NFL season.
Raiders' quarterback update may become bad news for Geno Smith
Carroll has made it abundantly clear that Smith will not be benched due to anything short of an injury. The idea that Kenny Pickett will get a chance to play under any other circumstance, even late in a blowout loss, is gone.
But if Smith gets both feet back on the turnover-driven struggle bus in Week 7 against the Kansas City Chiefs, the sentiment that he should be benched will come back all too easily within Raider Nation.
At this point in the regular season, we are in a window of time where players who started the season on the Injured Reserve and were designated to return could have their practice windows open and could start getting back in the fold for their teams.
When Carroll spoke to the media on Monday after the win over the Titans, he had a brief update on safety Lonnie Johnson Jr. and quarterback Aidan O'Connell.
“Both those guys are doing great in their rehab," Carroll said. "Aidan’s throwing the ball, Lonnie’s on the field running. It’s just a matter of this week, next kind of thing, so we’re in good shape with those guys. Next week off gives these guys a real chance to maximize their return opportunity.""
RELATED: Michael Mayer said what every Raiders fan needed to hear about Geno Smith
Ultimately, O'Connell was the lone returnee from the Raiders' 2024 quarterback room under the new regime. He was in line to be the No. 2 quarterback behind Smith this season, but a fractured right wrist during the preseason landed him on IR, and Pickett was acquired shortly afterward.
O'Connell is now in the 6–8-week recovery window that was initially reported, and Carroll insinuated that he has been throwing. What that means for a return to practice, and thus the opening of the 21-day window for him to be put on the 53-man roster, is unclear.
What's also unclear is where O'Connell will land on the depth chart once he's healthy. If Pickett isn't trusted as an option to replace Smith, and fans can probably remove 'if' from that sentence, O'Connell could immediately usurp him as the primary backup.
Or if Smith continues to struggle, would O'Connell be a legitimate option to replace him? That thought exercise is not an easy one, as it would look like throwing in the towel on the season. But if O'Connell could simply reduce turnovers, he has some history with the Raiders' skill position talent, and the offense would, in theory, not be completely shipwrecked.
A lot has to happen for O'Connell to go from progressing in his recovery from his wrist injury to taking the starting job from Smith. But it being any kind of conversation right now says it all about the big offseason move the Raiders made to supposedly upgrade their quarterback situation.