Geno Smith Explains Confidence in Raiders Despite Miserable 2025

As his rough debut season with the Raiders comes to a close, Geno Smith still sounds confident in his future in Las Vegas.

“I’m expecting to win a lot of games here,” Smith told ESPN reporter Ryan McFadden.

He also elaborated further, emphasizing the process despite the disappointment of the 2025 season. The Raiders sit at 2-12 heading into a Week 16 matchup in Houston against the playoff bound Texans.

“That’s what we’re pressing towards, and nothing happens in one day [or] one year,” Smith said. “We would have loved to win the Super Bowl this year, but that’s not our reality right now. The reality is we’ve got to get better, and we’ve got to focus on getting better day to day, and anything else outside of that really is nonsense,” he added.

Earlier in the week, Raiders head coach Pete Carroll left the door open for Smith to return to action this week after missing his team’s 31-0 loss to Philadelphia.

But no matter what happens in the final weeks, Smith’s first season with the Raiders will go down as one of his worst from recent memory. The two-time Pro Bowler has 2,648 passing yards with 16 touchdowns and 14 picks in 13 games.

The Raiders traded for Smith during the offseason, reuniting Smith with Carroll from their time together in Seattle.

In his final season in Seattle, Smith threw for 4,320 yards while completing 70.4% of his passes. Smith also ran for 272 yards on the ground. He scored 23 total touchdowns to go along with 15 interceptions, his second highest total from a single season after his rookie year with the Jets.

Before being drafted in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft by the Jets, Smith racked up 11,662 passing yards and 98 touchdowns across three years as the starting quarterback for WVU, including 42 passing touchdowns to just six interceptions during his senior year. He finished his career near the top of most statistical passing categories for the program, leading the Mountaineers to a trio of bowl games and an Orange Bowl win.

Former WVU quarterback Geno Smith honored on a wall at West Virginia’s facility next to big wins in program history. (WVSN photo by Mike Asti)

A 2013 second round pick of the Jets, Smith washed out of New York after two seasons as the starter, playing sparsely until 2022 when he earned the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year Award. From there, he caught on with the Seattle Seahawks and enjoyed a career renaissance until being traded to the Raiders.

Find more coverage of Geno Smith at WV Sports Now.