Geno Smith began his career with the New York Jets and, while it's no guarantee that he finishes his run in the NFL with the team that drafted them, he'll at least be making a late career pitstop. On Tuesday with the NFL free agency winds swirling and the Jets needing a quarterback, the Las Vegas Raiders are sending Smith and a 2026 seventh-round pick to New York for a 2026 sixth-round pick, as reported by ESPN insider Adam Schefter.
Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The New York Jets needed a veteran quarterback to stabilize their offense ahead of the 2025 season.
- A recent trade brought in a seasoned signal-caller who could provide immediate improvement at the position.
- This move gives the Jets a competent floor at quarterback while preserving their future draft assets.
Trade: the Raiders are sending QB Geno Smith and a 2026 7th-round pick to the New York Jets in exchange for a 2026 6th-round pick, per ESPN sources. Smith returns to the team for which he started his NFL career for in 2013. pic.twitter.com/xp7gvXxYJf
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 10, 2026
The Raiders offloaded Geno Smith to a QB-desperate Jets team
Here's how the full details of the trade break down for both sides:
With Fernando Mendoza's name being all but certain to be called as the first overall pick in the 2026 draft to the Raiders, it's been clear for some time that Las Vegas is going to move on from Smith and. a release seemed more likely than not. However, the Jets' situation with no clear avenue to finding even a stopgap option under center this season, a late-round pick swap allowed the Raiders to get something in return.
But how did both teams make out in this trade when you consider both situations? Let's take a dive into both sides of the deal and hand out grades to both teams with Geno Smith on the move.
New York Jets trade grade: Geno Smith answers a short-term problem
Jets head coach Aaron Glenn isn't in a position to punt addressing quarterback to next offseson. The hope at one point was that New York would be able to draft the QB2 in this year's class with the second overall pick. But Dante Moore's decision to return to Oregon put the Jets in a position where they had to explore more veteran options.
As far as those veteran options go, however, Smith makes complete sense for where the Jets are. There was consideration given to firing Glenn after his first season with the Jets, which makes this a win-now type of season, even if that doesn't mean making the playoffs. There needs to be improvement.
Smith can be that, even coming off a highly forgettable season with the Raiders. He's still a steady stopgap option that can raise the level of competence for the New York offense to where it needs to be — and potentially not waste another year of Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall.
Perhaps most importantly, though, the fact of the matter is that Smith, at this point in his career, isn't someone that the Jets are going to be married to at quarterback for the long haul. The 2027 NFL Draft is likely to be one of the most loaded classes, especially at QB, that we've seen in some time. The Jets have a ton of draft capital to maneuver and still likely won't be good enough to be out of range for one of the top quarterbacks.
Smith will raise the floor for the Jets while not compromising their future. And for the cost of simply moving from the sixth round to the seventh round with a Day 3 pick, that feels absolutely worth it.
Jets grade: A-
Las Vegas Raiders trade grade: Getting anything for Geno is a win
It was a foregone conclusion that the Raiders were moving on from Smith. The trade for him last offseason and the subsequent extension were ill-fated, but it is a credit to the front office that they constructed the deal with easy outs to allow them to move on if things played out as they did. And now they're able to move add a sixth-round pick rather than just cutting him outright to pave the way for Fernando Mendoza.
The Raiders have been operating early in free agency like a team that's clearly going in a new direction. Trading Maxx Crosby was a huge part of that, but they've also been spending to upgrade both the offense and defense already, not to mention supplementing their young stars in Brock Bowers and Ashton Jeanty. And the transition at quarterback is obviously the linchpin in doing that.
At the same time, you can't hate the Raiders getting something for essentially nothing when it comes to Smith. They were going to just get the money off the books and wash their hands of it to move in the new direction, but now they upgrade a late-Day 3 selection.
That's not world-moving by any stretch of the imagination, of course. However, it's an improvement of the situation, even if marginal, when all signs pointed to them just getting rid of their now-former quarterback. We won't call that a huge win, but it's still a win for the Raiders nonetheless.