That headline sitting above this sentence is the exact one that Las Vegas Raiders fans don’t want to see, hear or read. They want a brand new start with a savvy, offensively innovative coach and a shiny new young quarterback.
The Raiders have half of that right now. New coach Klint Kubiak is young, and he’s considered an offensive innovator, plus he’s got a Super Bowl ring that’s brand new, too.
But the other half of that equation isn’t in Las Vegas right now. Most fans and experts are sure he will be when the Raiders draft former Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the top pick in the draft in April, but Kubiak also knows how hard it is to win with a rookie quarterback, so he’s currently hedging his bets.
“Looking at all options right now,” Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak told reporters this week at the scouting combine via a piece written by Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk. “Watching Geno play last year, obviously very familiar with what he had done before. We’re just kind of putting it all on the table right now, trying to see every possible avenue we can go right now at quarterback. He’s definitely one of those options we’re considering.”
These comments are about two things. The first is money. The Raiders are on the hook for $18 million for Smith this year, whether they cut him or keep him, and there’s another $8 million in guaranteed injury-protection money that kicks in next month.
The other part of this is that the Raiders are waiting for the trade and quarterback markets to develop. This is going to take a while, maybe right up until draft day. There also may be other options out there, depending on Kubiak’s internal evaluation process, which he’s not revealing to anyone right now.
Kubiak also said he and Smith have talked “a little,” according to Simmons, since he was hired after winning the Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks. Kubiak also knows Smith to some extent from their time together in Seattle, and he saw the Seahawks have some success with Smith before he was traded.
It’s always possible that Smith could serve briefly as a bridge quarterback while Kubiak prepares Mendoza for the NFL. There’s also the possibility that Kubiak doesn’t really want Mendoza, who was rated a “solid NFL starter” by Pro Football Focus, so he’s just talking up Mendoza while waiting for those markets build up. It’s all a bit of a guessing game right now, and it’s going to be a while before we know more.