This season has not been anywhere near what many had hoped nor what the Raiders expected when they hired Pete Carroll and traded for Geno Smith. The team can’t get anything going consistently on offense and Smith is a part of that. As the quarterback, he may be an outsized part of that.
Smith’s 13 interceptions is tied for the most in the league and his pass rating of 80.9 is 26th in the NFL this season. His 77.3 passer rating in the team’s loss to the Cowboys Monday night was the sixth time this season he has had a passer rating below 78. The Raiders lost all of those games. Even still, Pete Carroll is standing with his embattled QB.
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“I continue to really believe in him. I have no hesitation in telling you that,” Carroll said Tuesday. “He’s an incredible player, and he’s busting his tail, and he’s working really hard at it. He has not backed off one step throughout the process, and so we’re counting on that he’s going to keep working it, and he’ll come through for us. We just got to help out more, got to protect him better.”
There is room for blaming the Raiders pass blocking. It’s been atrocious to be certain. But he had his worst game of the season while both Kolton Miller and Jackson Powers-Johnson were healthy. And even in those times Geno has time to throw, he very often is late and throwing into traffic. That’s a surefire way to lead the league in interceptions.
There is also room for pointing to how poor the Raiders wide receiving corps is. That’s quite valid. But things weren’t great even when Jakobi Meyers was still on the team. They’re just a whole lot worse now that he’s gone.
One can view Geno Smith’s season while taking into consideration the bad offensive line and talent bereft wide receiving corps. And still come away thinking he could be playing a lot better. As someone who covered the Raiders through the Derek Carr years, I heard all these excuses time and time again. Ultimately what it came down to was whether Carr was playing well enough to be the difference. He hadn’t done that for years. And Geno is not doing that now. And that would be generous.
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But Carroll put his faith in the QB who had his best years under him in Seattle and so it’s not really surprising he would be the last one to give up on him.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders HC faith in Geno Smith unshaken ‘he’ll come through for us’
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