Jason Burgos
While there is a lot of doom-and-gloom around New York Jets nation over the fact that Geno Smith will be their starting quarterback next season, his former head coach is trying to give Gang Green fans hope about his potential in 2026.
“We should’ve had him better prepared for the things that happened, and that wouldn’t have happened,” Pete Carroll told ESPN’s Rich Cimini about Smith’s disappointing performance with the Las Vegas Raiders last season. “I take a lot of responsibility for 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.”
Carroll has seen the best of the 12-year veteran and was the head coach during Smith’s two Pro Bowl seasons with the Seattle Seahawks. It is why, when he took over as head coach of the Raiders last season, he had the front office bring the 35-year-old to be his QB1 in 2025.
Pete Carroll blames awful line play for Geno Smith’s performance in 2025
However, Smith had a rough season as he had 19 touchdowns to 17 interceptions and was sacked a league-worst 55 times. Carroll claims that not improving the offensive line played a huge role in Smith’s performance last year.
“Our offensive guys up front, from the last couple of years, we got murdered,” Carroll said. ‘We needed to upgrade that more than we did. It didn’t happen in the draft, and it didn’t happen in the offseason. 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 that’s why you saw a change and all that.”
There are certainly doubts about how much better the NY Jets O-line is compared to the Raiders. But if they give Smith better blocking in 2026, the former Jets head coach believes Gang Green has a really good player at the QB1 spot next season.
“He’s a phenomenal quarterback, he really is,” Carroll said.
