26. Carson Wentz, Minnesota Vikings
Slowly but surely, teams have kind of just “figured out” Carson Wentz, haven’t they? The Vikings got a little bit more out of Wentz than anyone really expected for the first two games, as he threw four touchdown passes and helped them to a win in his first start. That start came against the hapless Bengals, and since then, Wentz’s efficiency has decreased just about every week.
And it came to a bit of a boiling point against the Los Angeles Chargers. Wentz and the Vikings were dominated from start to finish by the Chargers’ defense, and he didn’t even complete 56 percent of his passes in the Thursday night matchup. What’s even worse is that Wentz has taken at least three sacks in all but one of his games this season, and has fumbles in three of his last four.
Still, the Vikings have been in one score games the majority of the last month, so we’ll see how much of a leash he has going forward.
25. Geno Smith, Las Vegas Raiders
Geno Smith/Raiders on a bye in Week 8
When the Las Vegas Raiders traded for Geno Smith, it was assumed by many out there (present company included) that they had raised the proverbial floor of their offense significantly. That has been anything but the case.
In the month of October, Geno Smith had 1 touchdown pass compared to three interceptions and seven sacks taken. He only threw 16 passes in a blowout loss against the Kansas City Chiefs.
To say that Smith has been a disappointment for the Raiders would probably be an understatement at this stage, and obviously, this is a guy whose reputation was as a solid veteran who could raise the tide in the harbor a little bit. The injury status of a guy like Brock Bowers hasn’t helped, but Smith hasn’t been good at all.
The Raiders have not even been competitive in a handful of their games this season. Smith has 10 interceptions in his first seven games and looks like he might have bamboozled the Raiders this offseason with the contract he received after the trade. Chalk another one up for John Schneider of the Seahawks, I suppose.