Following a devastating 40-6 humiliation at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts, the Las Vegas Raiders sit at 1-4, staring down their 15th losing season over the past 20 years. This dismal tally represents the worst start of first-year head coach Pete Carroll’s long and storied career. While Carroll promised during training camp that the Raiders would win a “bunch” of games, the reality is that the effort to raise the floor of the Raiders’ passing attack with the Geno Smith acquisition has failed miserably. The team’s inability to compete has effectively dashed any thought of being in the playoff hunt by Thanksgiving.
The primary catalyst for this swift descent into disaster is painfully apparent: the veteran quarterback is an absolute turnover machine. Through five games, Geno Smith leads the NFL with nine interceptions. This is not just bad play; it is historically awful. Smith’s nine picks mark the highest total by a Raiders quarterback through the first five games of a season since Jim Plunkett in 1982. The only other recent player in this unenviable company is Zach Wilson of the Jets, who played in 2021.
The problem compounds because these turnovers are not meaningless mistakes in garbage time, they are crippling the team. Seven of Smith’s nine interceptions have resulted directly in opponent scoring drives, giving away 35 points in total. During the Colts blowout, Smith endured his third multi-interception performance of the season, looking confused and lacking confidence in his reads and throws throughout the afternoon. He is arguably the worst quarterback in the NFL through the first five weeks of the season.
The systemic failure of the offense was glaring in Indianapolis, where the Raiders went 0-for-4 in the red zone. Geno Smith’s inability to convert opportunities into touchdowns keeps the team in its own way. His first interception came deep in Colts territory, at the 11-yard line. Though Smith tried to justify the play, stating he threw to the open receiver, the result was a tipped ball and an interception that shouldn’t have happened, according to Carroll.
Geno Smith’s Failure Seems Lost on Pete Carroll
What is perhaps more disturbing than Smith’s play is the head coach’s stunning lack of situational awareness and willingness to confront reality. When asked to evaluate Smith’s performance after reviewing the game tape, Pete Carroll offered an evaluation that defied logic, saying, “G was solid,” and insisted Smith has “just got to keep doing it.”
Carroll openly admitted he is “processing it poorly” because he did expect to win right out of the gate. But while the coach expresses some disappointment over the results, his public defense of Smith makes him sound delusional and like he watched a different game. Raiders fans are unfortunately all too familiar with this particular sign when coaches start sounding crazy at the microphone, it’s rarely a sign of good things to come.
The most glaring coaching error, however, isn’t the defense of past play, but the refusal to acknowledge the future.
The Raiders acquired Kenny Pickett from the Browns for a 2026 fifth-round pick just before the season began. Yet, even as the Colts put in their backup, Anthony Richardson Sr., once the game was out of hand, Pete Carroll refused to insert Pickett. Carroll claimed he kept Smith in because the team (including the veterans like Smith and Maxx Crosby) needed the practice reps to run the system and improve, suggesting a big change was not needed.
With all due respect to the coach’s process, this decision is fundamentally flawed. The Raiders are 1-4, not 4-1. They are not going anywhere this season. By refusing to make the logical decision and benching Smith, Pete Carroll is effectively delaying the inevitable. Continued failure is hurting the development of young pass-catchers like Tre Tucker and Dont’e Thornton, making life harder for rookie running back Ashton Jeanty, and dragging the entire organization down. If the team won’t even give Pickett the fourth quarter of a 40-6 loss, as was the case against the Colts, it begs the question of why he is on the roster at all.
The current situation screams one-and-done for the Geno Smith tenure, despite the Raiders giving the veteran a three-year $75 million contract after trading a third-round pick in last April’s NFL Draft for him.
Pete Carroll’s reunion with Smith is not working. The time for solution-based talk is over. The time for solution-based action is now. The Raiders must bench the veteran turnover machine for Kenny Pickett before the entire season is irredeemably lost, and before Pete Carroll’s blind loyalty confirms this hire was a terrible fit.
