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.
He can spend the rest of his days being a professional gum tester for Wrigley
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.
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)?