Best NBA Bets Today – Thursday, March 6, 2025
FTN Staff
The rebuild in Seattle kicked into high gear Friday, with the Seahawks reportedly agreeing to trade starting quarterback Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders for a 2025 third-round pick.
Smith, the 2022 Comeback Player of the Year and a two-time Pro Bowler, heads to Las Vegas with one year left on his contract, and the Raiders aren’t extending him as part of the deal, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. He finished as fantasy’s QB5 in 2022 before dropping to QB19 and QB13 the last two years.
He will immediately take over as the starting quarterback in Las Vegas under former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, under whom Smith had his greatest success in the NFL. He had a career high of 3,046 yards and 13 touchdowns before taking over as the Seattle starter, but he won the Comeback Player of the Year with 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns as the replacement for longtime Seattle starter Russell Wilson.
Listen: FTN’s Jeff Ratcliffe Reacts to the Move
Carroll and the new front office in Las Vegas — headlined by Tom Brady — clearly liked the pairing with Smith better than the relatively meager other options in this year’s free agent class (and, considering they don’t pick until sixth overall, the draft). He’s set up to be a mid-range QB2 in Las Vegas, relatively close to his value in Seattle. He’ll throw to incumbent Raiders WR Jakobi Meyers and TE Brock Bowers, who set many records in 2024 — most receiving yards by a rookie tight end (1,194), most receptions by a rookie of any position (112) and most receptions in a season by a Raider.
Even if he’s not a top-tier quarterback, Smith is better than the amalgam the Raiders had throwing to Bowers in 2024 (Gardner Minshew II, Aidan O’Connell, Desmond Ridder), so this should be good news for the tight end. He will be one of the first tight ends off the board in fantasy drafts in 2025, maybe the first.
As for Meyers, it remains to be seen how his stock will rise or fall based on this news, because the Raiders are likely to add more receiving help in the offseason (not to mention something for the backfield). If Meyers enters the season as the WR1 in Las Vegas, he’ll be a borderline fantasy starter. But there’s a long time between now and then.
Back in Seattle, the Seahawks are clearly starting over, at least to a point. Tyler Lockett has already been released, and DK Metcalf is on the trading block. Jaxon Smith-Njigba will enter the season as the WR1 in Seattle, Metcalf or no Metcalf, but if he’s the only one of the big three remaining, he’s likely to command an absolutely massive target share. The problem? As of right now, the only quarterbacks on the roster in Seattle are Sam Howell and Jaren Hall. Translation: The 2025 Seahawks starting QB is probably not currently on the roster. Whether that means Seattle will be plumbing the depths of the free agent market — they are reportedly eying Sam Darnold — or trying to take a second-tier rookie in the draft, we’ll see. It will go a long way toward determining Smith-Njigba’s value next season.
