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Geno Smith experienced a career resurgence when he joined the Seattle Seahawks under head coach Pete Carroll. A quarterback who had long been viewed as a backup suddenly reached new heights with the franchise from the Emerald City.
However, once he departed from Seattle, just as Carroll eventually did, it became clear that the signal-caller's success may have been something of a mirage with the Northwestern team. When he arrived in Las Vegas, expectations were high, but those hopes ultimately remained nothing more than optimism that never materialized.
Smith was not even a shadow of the player he had shown himself to be with the Seahawks. With the Raiders, he struggled week after week, delivering performances that frustrated fans who increasingly demanded he be benched because his outings were consistently disappointing.
Eventually, after weeks of tension surrounding the situation, the franchise decided to move on from him in preparation for the arrival, reportedly almost certain, of Heisman Trophy winner and College Football Playoff champion Fernando Mendoza.
Throughout the entire situation, the person who consistently defended Smith was the now former Las Vegas head coach, Pete Carroll. Voices around the organization and among supporters repeatedly called for the quarterback to be removed from the starting lineup, but Carroll remained firm and refused to take him out. Now, the coach himself has spoken publicly about that decision.
Pete Carroll speaks about Geno Smith
No one, absolutely no one, understood how Pete Carroll continued to keep quarterback Geno Smith as the starter despite the results.
We got killed, we got killed."..."Our offensive guys up front, from the last couple of years, we got murdered. We needed to upgrade that more than we did. It didn't happen in the draft, and it didn't happen in the offseason.
Pete Carroll told ESPN on Wednesday, and added.
We needed to buy a new line to give the guys a chance to at least be more competitive. The only reason you get sacked that much is because you try to throw it too much. The whole thing didn't quite work out and what's why you saw a change and all that.
It is also worth mentioning that the offensive line never performed at the level the team required. It resembled a sieve that allowed defenders through almost constantly, leaving Smith with little time to develop plays or read the defense properly.
For Geno, the stretch included ten consecutive losses until Carroll finally decided to bench his trusted quarterback and give the offense to Kenny Pickett in the final game, which the Raiders won 3-14 against the Kansas City Chiefs, a contest that also did not feature Patrick Mahomes due to injury.
The numbers were never on the quarterback's side. He was under pressure almost every snap and often had to force plays that ended poorly. Because of this, Carroll now laments that he was unable to bring out the best version of his quarterback.
Pete Carroll was Geno Smith's biggest supporter
The coach was the one who decided to take the gamble on Smith during his brief tenure with the Raiders.
He's a phenomenal quarterback; he really is."... "He had a fantastic offseason and preseason with us, and he comes out in the first game, has a great first game. It was all fitting. It was exactly the right time for us. Then we just faltered and faltered. We didn't do well enough, coaching. We should've had him better prepared for the things that happened, and that wouldn't have happened.
Carroll told ESPN about his former quarterback and added.
I take a lot of responsibility in that."... "We didn't prepare him well enough in the offseason, even though he looked great and we felt we had everything lined up. It was very, very disappointing for us both. He got off to such a miserable start, and it wasn't just him.
Today, both men are no longer in Las Vegas, trying to process and leave behind the difficult season they endured with the franchise.