The final step in the Raiders acquiring Geno Smith in trade with the Seahawks was to sign him to a contract extension. The prevailing thinking was that Smith would command a fairly hefty salary based on the fact that the Seahawks brass said they had offered him a deal that would put him among the league's better starting quarterbacks.
In order to be paid as a top 15 QB, Smith would have to make an average of around $45 million per season. And some believed the Seahawks offered him something close to that and he turned it down. Which, of course led many to believe that the Raiders would need to approach that in their extension talks.
When it came down to it, however, Geno Smith's new deal with the Raiders was quite a bit more affordable than that.
Smith will make something closer to around $35 million per season over his three-year deal with the Raiders with inecentives that could bring that number closer to $39 million.
His base number here places him outside the top 16 quarterbacks, just below former Raiders QB Derek Carr -- a QB who, like the Raiders two years ago, the Saints would like to move on from.
The thing is, Smith is in the situation where the Raiders definitely want him. They sent a third round pick to Seattle to get the 34-year-old and they did so with the full intention of giving him an extension well past this coming season.
There is no question, the deal they made with Smith is a bargain. Smith has put up some of the best numbers in the league over the past three seasons as the full time starter in Seattle. That goes especially for one pretty important QB stat -- accuracy.
I'll let ESPN's Mina Kimes go into more detail on why Raiders fans should be "psyched" about this deal.
Smith has been the most accurate QB in the NFL over the past four seasons and last season finished behind only Bengals' Joe Burrow in on-target percentage. Burrow who makes an average of $55 million per season. Yeah, that's a full $20 million per season more than Smith just got on his deal.
The Raiders got their starter, possibly for the next three years if things work out. And even if they decided to move on before that three years was up, they wouldn't be hamstrung with a ton of dead money. There's simply no downside here.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders fans should be 'psyched' at QB Geno Smith deal in Las Vegas
