Pete Carroll became the oldest head coach in NFL history when the Raiders hired him last January. With a resume that includes a Super Bowl championship and a national title, expectations were that the Raiders would give the 74-year-old a long leash. However, now a week away from finishing a disastrous season under Carroll, the Raiders may go in another direction in 2026.
In a game featuring 2-13 teams and top contenders for the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft, the Raiders took a 34-10 beating at the hands of the Giants on Sunday. The outcome may be good for the Raiders’ future – they’re now in pole position to draft first – but it continued a brutal run for the Carroll-led club. Las Vegas has now dropped 10 in a row. The Raiders haven’t been competitive during several games in that stretch. They’ve lost three by 24-plus points and two via shutout.
With the Raiders showing little life on the field, Carroll has reportedly been on the hot seat for weeks. Moves to shake up his first (and perhaps only) Raiders coaching staff haven’t gotten the team out of the basement. Carroll parted with special teams coach Tom McMahon and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly at different points in November, but the losing hasn’t stopped.
Even though Kelly was the league’s highest-paid OC, and although part-owner Tom Brady was instrumental in hiring him, the Raiders cut the cord on the experienced play caller. The philosophies of Carroll and Kelly clashed during their 11-game run together.
The Raiders’ offense averaged a horrid 15 points per game with Kelly at the controls, but replacing him with Greg Olson hasn’t worked. The number has fallen to 14.2 since Kelly’s ouster. Not surprisingly, the Raiders are last in the league in scoring.
Hoping to improve Carroll’s chances of immediate success, the Raiders reunited him with quarterback Geno Smith. They traded a 2025 third-rounder to Seattle for Smith and immediately handed him a two-year, $75MM extension. While Smith performed well as Carroll’s starter in Seattle from 2022-23, that hasn’t been the case in a new city. Smith has been among the league’s least effective QBs this year, which is among the reasons Carroll may be at risk of a one-and-done tenure in Las Vegas.
While this has easily been the worst season of Carroll’s 19 as an NFL head coach, he still believes Raiders ownership (Mark Davis and Brady) is in his corner. Brady’s presence helped steer Carroll to Las Vegas, but the results have been so poor that the two sides may be on their way to a divorce a year later. It wouldn’t be the first short-lived Vegas marriage.
Do you expect the Raiders to dismiss Carroll? Vote in PFR’s latest poll and have your say in the comments section.
Nah
They’ll fire him purely because they don’t have any better options in mind.
Read an article tonight that the Raiders could offer Maxx & 1st pick in the draft plus a bit more for Burrow. Interesting take from the writer.
If true I would approve. ALOT of these lesser tier organizations need to make huge moves to alter the course of their programs.
That sounds like the nuclear option to me. Burrow is a franchise caliber QB- the most valuable commodity in the game- and they have to figure out how to improve the entire team to support that investment. It doesn’t matter how many draft picks you have if you don’t have THAT guy. Plus, if they weren’t willing to pay Hendricks, they’re not gonna pay Crosby. They need to freaking draft better!
Dudes crying about football not being fun. Have any of you actually WATCHED a Raider game this year? He’ll be pissed off by week 2. He would have no line, no receivers, a coach who’s 10 years PAST the normal retirement age, and I could go on. Not gonna happen from his side. Doesn’t seem to be a guy who cares about money as I’m sure he has plenty.
Mike Brown will not trade Burrow . Period . He would not trade Palmer until he went nuclear . Brown is way too stubborn .
He can spend the rest of his days being a professional gum tester for Wrigley
He can take the Steelers special teams coach with him. If I never see him and his wad of gum again, it’ll be too soon
How does he fit that softball sized wad in there & not choke?
He has done a good coaching job of maximizing his QB talent before this season. Give Pete Carroll and Brady a chance to mold the number 1 pick. A QB would be able to learn a lot from those two Super Bowl champs.
This was his hand selected qb. Not sure a 75 year old defensive coach who runs an awful archaic defense in the first place is the right guy to coach up your number 1 qb pick.
Has he, though? He sabotaged his highly paid offensive coordinator for the sake of two ill suited coaches that happen to be his sons. I think Carroll has hurt the team in as many ways that he’s helped…possibly moreso.
The league has passed Carroll by. Brady has not proven anything about roster building regardless of his “influence” with the team decisions.
They were brought in to compete immediately and they took huge steps back. I get that Mark Davis is an idiot but if he weren’t he’d fire Carroll and tell Brady to stick to his subpar broadcasting.
I wouldn’t trust ancient Carroll with developing a QB as far as I can throw him at this point. He is set in his ways and stubborn. We need an offensive mind that can put a young franchise QB into the best position to win based on his unique skillset, not lecture him on “this is how we did it back in the day”,
Side poll: Keep Pete, steal the chargers DC as your next HC, hire offensive head coach to tutor Mendoza/Moore, or hire Brian Flores(the guy currently suing the NFL, coaching the team that previously sued the NFL)?
Pete didn’t want to stay in an office capacity w/ the Seahawks. I don’t think would go for another demotion.
He deserves to be fired. But he won’t be. It’s the raiders.
Wdym. They’ve had 5 head coaches since 2021. All they do is fire coaches.
Keep him, trade the pick and suck again next year in a deeper draft class, then fire him
I think this is a trick question. Pete has earned a lot of respect over his career so it’s unlikely he will be just dumped on the curb like a bag of garbage. The Raiders will probably move him to an advisory position in the organization then search for a new HC.
It would be the Raider thing to do but he’s not going anywhere this year. He will likely get at least another year.
Well, we “all” deserve second chances. Whether Carroll gets that chance is a separate matter…
To me, the Raiders were his 2nd chance. Seattle is an awesome team sitting in 1st place in the NFC.
They’d be crazy not to fire him. This team had some hope and talent coming into the year and were an absolute disaster.
Being that they will most certainly draft Mendoza, now is the time for a change. Their will be many more coaches interested in the position this year than last.
No
Does Mark Davis have the money to eat another coaching contract?
That’s why I voted no. How many fired head coaches can he afford to pay?
He should have the money. First, he’s a billionaire, second both the NFL & LV paid for the new stadium. I’m so tired of how ‘poor’ Mark and Mike Brown are.
Davis, the Brown and Rooney families all derive the entirety of their wealth from the NFL franchises that have been handed down to them. They may be billionaires on paper, it doesn’t mean they have the liquidity of other teams.
From google: Tom Brady and his partner Tom Wagner bought a 10% stake in the Las Vegas Raiders for approximately $220 million.
The Steelers have been one of the most stable franchises over decades. Davis & family have owned the team since the 70’s and rode the enormous financial boom over 4 decades, same Brown.
Both Brown and Davis have the money, but refuse to build any semblance of winning franchises. Plus add in the new found wealth w/ TV and gambling.
Yes please for the love of all things Holy
I’d keep him on if nothing else for some organizational stability. McDaniels wasn’t their long, they gave Pearce a year, and now they want to punt a year later on Carroll? At some point you gotta get somebody a qb and a roster with a chance
If they’re going to fire him, I gotta think they would allow him to retire/walk away on his own and let him position it that way…….
Considering Carroll has already completed me out and publicly stated he wants to return, that ship has sailed.
Come out and stated.
I hope not.
Hired out of a panic. Coming in the plan was 3 years tops. Absolute shiz show in year one. When Pete came on he didn’t realize they weren’t at the bottom yet. You need a complete rebuild, which takes time. All this hire did was waste a year and delay the inevitable.
Fire him. You’re going to be able to get a QB in this draft, even though it’s a crappy draft for QB’s. Hire a young coach, let him pick his team, and reassess the direction in two years.
Orrrr…keep him, hope he doesn’t die in the process, have HIM draft a QB for another coach, go on to win 3 games and do it again next year. As Raider fan I don’t give a F anymore, but repeatedly doing the same shiz over and over is exhausting to give a shiz about.
Let’s be real, absolutely ZERO reason to win this game this weekend. NONE. Screw your effort. Screw your “I go hard always” crap. These clowns have won 2 f’ng games this season. TWO. If you care now, where was that effort and care 3 months ago? Miss me with that boring talk. Start all the rookies, start some fans, start Mark Davis at tackle, who give a hell?? Lose this game, vomit in the toilet, and get ready for our real season…the offseason.
Alright I’m done.
Always happy to see the wanderers lose!
Pete did exactly what he was hired to do. He got them the 1st pick in next years draft. Now can he lose the last game to confirm they get the #1 pick? Who knows seen him blow games he should have won. I can easily see him winning the last game and losing the 1st pick. Also can see him losing the last game and winning the 1st pick. Who knows what the old fart will do.
The Brown family has issues but I would place them ahead of how Mark Davis has run the Raiders, Woody Johnson’s running of the JETS, past decade by the Mara family with NY Giants, I could name a few others. Overall there are more bad owners in the NFL than good ones…
Also,.no way Bengals will trade Burrow and an offer of an unhappy DE.and one first round pick. That isn’t close to value for a legit franchise QB.
Burrow is injury prone and his injury likely cost him and the Bengals the opportunity of making the playoffs. If the Bengals win on Sunday they will have gone 6-2 with Burrow at QB…
Bengals improved there Oline this yr. There defense was terrible at the beginning of season but has improved in the second half. The Bengals D.had developed two legit starting corners in Turner and Jill and Myles Murphy has come in as season has gone on at DE. They still have holes to fill, will see if they are able to sign any free agents in March. They will have over $70M available to spend.
Now if Burrow has a totally healthy year in 2026 and Bengals don’t make playoffs,.I them can see Burrow potentially asking out of his deal but not this off.season.
I don’t know if they will or not. Davis may not want to pay him out to not coach….but they definitely should fire him.