After getting hurt against the Denver Broncos last Sunday and failing to practice this week, fans were simply awaiting the Las Vegas Raiders' official announcement that Geno Smith would not play in Week 15 against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Well, that came on Friday afternoon, as head coach Pete Carroll took the podium and confirmed that backup Kenny Pickett would indeed start this weekend, not only against his old team, but his favorite childhood team.
"Kenny's gonna play," Carroll said. "Geno won't make it back. We tried, couldn't get it done in this amount of time, but he'll have a really good chance to be back next week, so Kenny's gonna take the lead (this week).