The Las Vegas Raiders have their quarterback locked in for the foreseeable future. They signed Geno Smith to a contract extension after trading a third-round draft pick to the Seattle Seahawks to acquire him. The move reunites Smith with head coach Pete Carroll, with whom he had great success in Seattle, but it also gives him the opportunity to learn from the greatest quarterback ever, Tom Brady.
Brady is a minority owner of the Raiders and is committed to helping this franchise return to glory. He will be doing that from an executive role now, but that doesn’t diminish his expertise on the field, and Smith plans to take advantage of that.
Smith spoke on this, calling Brady someone he’s long idolized and wanted to learn from via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk:
“It’s Tom Brady,” Smith said. “It’s a guy that I’ve idolized and looked up to, and I believe he does things the right way, and I think that’s something I wanted to take from just watching his game from afar.”
They already started, as the Raiders’ quarterback revealed he has visited Brady at his home and is looking forward to learning as much as he can from Brady:
“I got a chance to talk to him, went to his home and spent about an hour and just talked ball with him and talked life,” Smith said. “You understand why he is who he is immediately. He takes everything extremely seriously, he’s a diligent worker and he believes in hard work. I think we align that way. I want to be a sponge. I want to soak up as much knowledge as I can from him. I want to learn as much as I can from him, the greatest quarterback to play the game. There’s so much you can learn. I think the main thing is that I’m here to win, I’m here to do the right things, just as he did.”
Like Smith said, he is here to win, and Brady brought him to the Raiders to do just that. So, the two are completely aligned and will do everything to make that happen.
Geno Smith signs two-year contract extension with Raiders
Geno Smith had just one year remaining on his contract when the Raiders traded for him. If the Raiders saw him as just a temporary fix at the quarterback position, they could have let him play out his contract, but that isn’t the case.
The Raiders showed their belief in Smith by agreeing to a two-year extension that keeps the quarterback locked up through 2027. The deal can be worth as much as $88.5 million, including $66.5 million guaranteed.
