Would Carroll’s OC want Raiders to trade Seahawks for Geno?

Once Pete Carroll became the Las Vegas Raiders’ new coach, the focus quickly turned to his new team’s uncertain quarterback situation.

And the speculation about it included the two most notable QBs he had during his long, successful tenure as Seattle Seahawks coach.

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In one corner is Russell Wilson, a pending free agent who maybe didn’t part ways with Carroll’s Seahawks on the best of terms but has since found his way back to the Pro Bowl with the Steelers after two tumultuous years with the Denver Broncos.

In the other is Geno Smith, who is still under contract with the Seahawks through 2025 but has a worrisome salary cap hit for next season that is part of a larger cap crunch Seattle needs to deal with. The Seahawks could look to rework Smith’s cap hit by signing him to a contract extension, or they could look to trade him.

Now there’s another factor to consider: Carroll has hired Chip Kelly as his offensive coordinator in Vegas. The 61-year-old Kelly is known for his offensive creativity, whether it was as a head coach at Oregon and UCLA or in the NFL with the Eagles and 49ers, or his most recent stop as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the 2024 national champion Ohio State Buckeyes.

Seattle Sports’ Brock Huard, a FOX college football analyst and former NFL quarterback, has been weighing whether Carroll hiring Kelly makes a Raiders trade with the Seahawks for Smith more or less likely, and he’s been having a hard time deciding.

“I’ve thought about this kind of both sides, and I can talk myself into it a little bit,” Huard said during Wednesday’s edition of Brock and Salk. “That if you’re Chip Kelly and you’re coming back to the league – in Philly, who did he have? Nick Foles? And he went to San Francisco and I think he had four different quarterbacks. And you know if you’re Chip, you would love to have what you had at the end at UCLA and last year at Ohio State, and that’s experience.”

For the first five of Kelly’s six years as UCLA coach, Dorian Thompson-Robinson was his starting quarterback. And then in 2024 at Ohio State, Kelly had Will Howard, who was a fifth-year transfer from Kansas State.

“DTR grew with you for four years. Will Howard was a fifth-year player, had 1,000 snaps under his belt,” Huard said. “So I think a Chip Kelly coming back in (to the NFL) would like to have that (experience at quarterback).”

On the flip side, though, is the fact that the Raiders seem committed to Kelly for the long term by reportedly making him the highest-paid OC in the NFL with a $6 million annual salary.

“At the same token, he’s making $6 million for a bunch of years, and he’s like, I got time. This isn’t a one-and-done for me more than likely so I’ll take whatever you give me,” Huard continued.

Another quarterback who’s popped up as a potential Raiders fit is the Minnesota Vikings’ Daniel Jones, who has good running ability – something Kelly has had success with at the QB position as a coach, and something Geno Smith is not particularly known for, especially when he’s set to turn 35 next season.

“I saw the name Daniel Jones floating around a little bit. And actually, a Daniel Jones has a lot of a Will Howard facsimile at the college level,” Huard said. “What Chip likes to do in the QB run game, what Chip likes to do in the zone-read run game, having just that threat and that guy that is able to present that – that’s not Geno Smith.”

When push comes to shove, the scales are tipped to the second line of thinking for Huard.

“Chip, you have always used running quarterbacks in great ways,” he said. “The more that I thought about it, I landed on if it’s one side or the other, probably lesser chance (the Raiders) take a 35-year-old Geno.”

Brock Huard answers three football questions during the Blue 88 segment at 7:45 a.m. during each edition of Brock and Salk. Hear Wednesday’s Blue 88 in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post, and catch the show live from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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