Jan 14, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders laughs as he watches the game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets during the second half at the American Airlines Center.

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Geno Smith’s Extension With the Raiders Indicates They Could Steer Clear of Shedeur Sanders in the NFL Draft!

The Las Vegas Raiders could have other plans now that Geno Smith is extended through 2028

Every year prior to the NFL draft, several mock drafts and rumors circulate around the media linking some of the top players to teams in the league. This year the Las Vegas Raiders have been linked with Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders for much of the offseason. Much of that speculation has probably come from the fact that Vegas’ part-time owner Tom Brady shares a good relationship with Sanders.

Brady has been a mentor and guiding presence in Sanders’ life ever since he was young and continued to provide help during Sanders’ college career as well. Furthermore, Sanders also signed a NIL deal with Brady’s apparel brand named ‘Brady’. Prior to the signing of Geno Smith from the Seahawks, Vegas had good reason to pursue a quarterback in this year’s draft class as they only had Aidan O’Connell on their roster at the time.

The Raiders traded for Smith on March 13, 2025, and he had only one year remaining on his contract. That still allowed the draft talk to circulate around Sanders as Vegas was expected to select him and possibly bench him for a year as he learned the ins and outs of the professional game while Smith drove the show.

However, the Raiders just extended Smith’s contract by another 2 years leading many like NFL insider Adam Schefter to believe that Vegas’ search for a quarterback is now over at least for the time being. In all likelihood, the Raiders are probably out of the quarterback signing race as the latest developments seem to indicate.

Adam Schefter’s Take Following Geno Smith’s Extension in Vegas

ESPN’s NFL analyst Adam Schefter is one of those who now believes that the Las Vegas Raiders are no longer in the hunt to sign a quarterback in this year’s draft. The 2-year deal they offered to Geno Smith worth $75 million is a lot of money to pay someone only to follow it up by taking another signal caller from the draft.

"I think this almost clinches the fact that the Las Vegas Raiders will bypass a quarterback in the first round." @AdamSchefter on the Raiders' NFL draft plans after extending QB Geno Smith. pic.twitter.com/6gXMCE4qhW
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) April 3, 2025

In fact, Schefter even alluded to the Atlanta Falcons who did a similar thing last season after signing former Vikings QB Kirk Cousins to a massive 4-year deal worth $180 million just weeks before the draft and then went on to select Michael Penix Jr. with the number 9 pick overall. Such instances are very rare and Schefter is quite confident that the Raiders will not be going down the same path.

“Look, essentially they give Geno Smith a deal that’s a little bit more than Seattle gave Sam Darnold. Seattle sat down with Geno Smith and it quickly became evident that the two sides were not going to be able to reach an agreement. I think Geno Smith had his eyes on Las Vegas. The Seahawks made him happy. They sent him to Las Vegas which was willing to pay Geno Smith more than the Seahawks. The Seahawks go on to Sam Darnold, and with today’s deal, because at this time of the year, everything is relative to the draft, I think this almost clinches the fact that the Las Vegas Raiders will bypass a quarterback in the first round. Maybe they revisit it in an early round later on, but it’s hard to imagine that they go and give Geno Smith $75 million today and then turn around three weeks later and draft a quarterback in the first round. I don’t think they’re taking a page from the Falcons playbook in terms of the plays that they are gonna run here.”

Overall, now that Vegas has extended Smith for a total of three years, it would make much more sense for them to bolster another area of the field with their number 6 draft pick. Las Vegas has plenty of other positional needs with one of them being the wide receiver room which could be another body to help out the likes of Jakobi Meyers and tight end Brock Bowers.

Also Read: Deion Sanders Denies Guiding Shedeur to Specific NFL Team

Geno Smith

Las vegas Raiders

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Shedeur Sanders

Devavrat Kulkarni

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I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!