ALAMEDA — The one-year anniversary of Aldon Smith’s suspension from football came and went Thursday with the Raiders linebacker still awaiting word from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

Smith, handed a one-year banishment by Goodell on Nov. 17, 2015 for violating the league’s substance abuse policy when he was arrested in August 2015 on drunken driving, hit and run and vandalism charges, is now officially eligible to be reinstated and has applied for his NFL return. But Goodell has no formal timeline upon which he has to work and so the Raiders and Smith continue to play the waiting game.

“Whatever they do, it’s Aldon and his representatives and the NFLPA, they do whatever paperwork they’ve got to do with the league office and we just sit back and wait,” Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie told this newspaper Thursday. “They’ll go through that process and we’ll hear from Goodell. We’re just waiting to hear from the NFL.”

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Raiders’ Aldon Smith suspended for a year by NFL Raiders coach Jack Del Rio, who called it a “wait and see” and “hope for the best” situation when asked previously, said Thursday that “nothing’s changed from what I spoke of last week.”

Smith’s suspension came after his fifth run-in with the law since being the 49ers’ No. 7 overall pick in 2011. The Raiders had anticipated his suspension when they signed him two days before last year’s season opener and vowed to support Smith throughout his time away from football, even if they are largely barred from contacting him. Beyond players, only director of player engagement Lamonte Winston may speak with Smith and even that’s severely limited.

“It’s a little bit of a questionable policy, but it’s the policy in place, so we’ll follow it,” Del Rio said.

Smith entered a rehabilitation facility earlier this summer after a video circulated online on his social media account that showed him potentially smoking marijuana. He’s recently been working out in private sessions in San Francisco and vowed in a YouTube video interview posted Wednesday night that he wouldn’t let the events that have interrupted his NFL career get him down.

“I won’t take no for answer,” Smith said in the video. “I won’t be defeated. You’ve got to understand that it’s your life. You control it. You can’t let nobody else control it. It doesn’t matter what they try to do to you. And most importantly, God put you here for a reason so make the best out of your life, your situation and be a blessing to somebody else and show the world what you’re worth.”

Quarterback Derek Carr tweeted Smith on Wednesday after a video of him working out was posted and said Thursday that he’s hoping to see him back soon.

“I’ve talked back and forth with him as a friend, texting him,” Carr said of Smith. “To be completely honest, nothing about football. I tweeted him yesterday because he posted that video and I was excited. I was like, ‘Man, is he telling us something?’ I don’t know. But whenever we get him back, we’ll be happy to get our brother back.”

Smith played in nine games for Oakland last season and had 28 tackles and 3 ½ sacks before his suspension. He’s played in only 27 of a possible 57 games since the start of the 2013 season due to suspensions and an earlier stint in rehab in 2013 following a DUI arrest.

Staff writer Jerry McDonald contributed to this report.