While the Raiders are beginning a new era under head coach Klint Kubiak including new quarterbacks leading the way, we check in on former QB Geno Smith in his Jets debut.
The QB some have coined 'Tank Commander' for his work guiding the Raiders to the worst record in the NFL last season started his first game with his new/old team since the Raiders traded him. Did he prove the problem was the Raiders all along? Or is he who we thought he was?
Technically, it was a return to New York for Geno Smith because he was originally drafted by the Jets with the 39th overall pick back in 2013. But after flaming out in his first two seasons there, he sat on the bench for two seasons before taking an eight-year, four team detour on his way back.
So far so decent
for Geno in his escape back to New York. The Jets handled the woeful Titans 23-10 with Smith putting up a 104 passer rating, going 19 of 24 for 215 yards with no TDs and no INTs.
The no INTs part is big for Smith who in his single season in Las Vegas led the league in interceptions (17) while throwing just 19 touchdowns.
To be fair, he was behind one of the worst performing offensive lines ever (thanks to coach's son Brenden Carroll) and therefore not only could get no time to throw but had no help from the run game.
In his debut, he got 102 yards from RB Breece Hall. Which, as it happens, is the same total the Raiders got from Ashton Jeanty in their season-opening win.
Geno's 79.2% passing was third best in the NFL in Week 1 and his 215 yards was 15th. Though it's important to point out that he completed over 70% of his passes in his Raiders debut as year ago and that proved not to be a sign of things to come.
If the Jets hope to keep it going, Geno is also probably going to have to throw some touchdowns -- another area in which he struggled with the Raiders (Only four times last season did he throw more TDs than INTs).
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: How did former Raiders QB Geno Smith do in his Jets 2026 debut?
