Many believed the Raiders and Geno Smith would have come together on a contract extension by now, but for reasons unknown, there has not been an agreement reached, and the Raiders still haven’t introduced their new starting quarterback to the media.
It’s fair to wonder what might be holding up the process and Sports Illustrated insider Albert Breer addressed the situation in a column this week.
“I don’t think there’s a holdup. It’s more of just negotiation,” Breer 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.”
For the most part, Breer’s sentiment has been one shared by the majority of those who have reported on Smith’s looming extension. It’s the timeline to the situation that has been confusing as it’s been reported by more than one outlet that a deal was expected much sooner than later.
Flagship radio host Q Myers shared his thoughts on Smith’s contract situation on Monday.
As other have pointed out, until the deal is done, there are going to be questions about what might be going on behind the scenes.
“I was asked that on my podcast, someone sent a call in [asking] ‘Is there a chance this extension won’t happen?’ Myers said on Raider Nation Radio’s Unnecessary Roughness. “I was like ‘Nah, I don’t think so.’ But when you hear it out loud, it makes you sit there and think about it more. So, as I’m sitting here and I said, ‘No, it’s going to happen, it’s, you know, it’s just a matter of when, not if.’ And then all of a sudden, it just started creeping into my mind like, well, I wonder.”
“It’s just makes me curious on the fact that it’s taken as long,” Myers continued. “At first, when it was a couple of days… I was like, ‘No big deal. It’ll happen sooner rather than later.’ But now it’s starting to be double-digit days. Hold on, what’s going down here? What’s the hold up? I couldn’t imagine that it’s a big dispute on money. I think that everyone knows what the ballpark is supposed to look like when it comes to a Geno Smith extension.”
Last week, Vinny Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal said there is “virtually no rush” for the Raiders and Smith to get a new deal done and predicted a new deal would be done “sometime next week.”
Based on Bonsignore’s timeline from Friday of last week, this is the week he is expecting something to happen.
