A year ago at this time, the Raiders had traded for quarterback Geno Smith, reuniting him with Pete Carroll as his head coach.
But things for Las Vegas did not work out as planned, with the Raiders finishing 3-14 in 2025. Carroll was fired after his one season with the franchise. On Wednesday, Smith was officially traded to the Jets — the team that selected him in the second round of the 2013 draft.
Carroll gave his first interview since being fired to Rich Cimini of ESPN, saying that he loves talking about Smith.
“I think I see him differently than a lot of people see him,” Carroll told Cimini. “I love him and appreciate him differently.”
Carroll said that he and the rest of the coaches didn’t do a good enough job preparing Smith for success.
“He’s a phenomenal quarterback, he really is,” Carroll said. “He had a fantastic offseason and preseason with us, and he comes out in the first game, has a great first game. It was all fitting. It was exactly the right time for us. Then we just faltered and faltered. We didn’t do well enough, coaching.
“We should’ve had him better prepared for the things that happened, and that wouldn’t have happened,” he continued. “I take a lot of responsibility in 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 also took a bit of a shot at the Raiders’ front office, noting that the club didn’t have good enough personnel along the offensive line to protect Smith, which led to a lot of the quarterback’s issues.
“We got killed, we got killed,” Carroll said. “Our offensive guys up front, from the last couple of years, we got murdered. 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 didn’t go for it 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 what’s why you saw a change and all that.”
Carroll fired offensive coordinator Chip Kelly in November, replacing him with Greg Olson on an interim basis. But the results didn’t improve much, as Smith finished the season having completed 67,4 percent of his passes for 3,025 yards with 19 touchdowns and a league-leading 17 interceptions in 15 games.
Carroll noted that Smith “didn’t get to reap the benefits of our relationship” with the Raiders. But the former head coach feels like Smith can bounce back with the Jets.
“If he figured out [New York] was a good place for him and he wanted to do it, and he was part of the decision, then I couldn’t support him more,” Carroll said. “If he saw the reasoning and felt the support and the opportunity, I couldn’t be in more favor of it. I love the guy and want the very best for him. He deserves it. He worked really hard to get where he is.”