One year was all the Las Vegas Raiders needed to see in order to determine Pete Carroll’s future.
Carroll has been fired as the head coach of the Raiders, the team announced Monday. Las Vegas went 3-14 in Carroll’s lone season at the helm, finishing in a four-way tie for the league’s worst record. However, the Raiders will hold the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
General manager John Spytek will “lead all football operations” moving forward, the team added in its announcement.
Carroll was hired by the Raiders last offseason following a year off from the end of his stint with the Seattle Seahawks, where he had spent 13 years as head coach and vice president of football operations of the Seattle Seahawks. Considering the success Carroll had with Seattle, many thought Las Vegas would vault into playoff contention.
But the Raiders largely struggled following their win to open the season. They went on a 10-game losing streak before winning Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The club could seek an offensive-minded coach to work with a young quarterback should the Raiders draft Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza or Dante Moore with the first overall pick. That formula worked well this season in Chicago with coach Ben Johnson and quarterback Caleb Williams and in Jacksonville with coach Liam Coen and QB Trevor Lawrence. Both teams are playoff-bound after experiencing losing seasons the year before.
There is no one path to success, however. New England hired a defensive coach in Mike Vrabel, and he worked well with quarterback Drake Maye to help the Patriots go from a 4-13 record to 14-3 and the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs.
Carroll was hired after the Raiders fired Antonio Pierce following the 2024 season. The move was a bit of a surprise at the time, considering Carroll’s age. Carroll became the oldest head coach in NFL history this season, turning 74 in September.
But Carroll arrived in Las Vegas with the intent of winning right away. He got his wish of bringing in quarterback Geno Smith, whom he coached in Seattle. Neither got the success they expected, with Smith throwing a league-high 17 interceptions as the losses piled up.
With his firing, this could mark the end of Carroll’s coaching career. If it is, he’s arguably had one of the greatest coaching careers in the history of the sport. He’s one of three coaches to ever win a Super Bowl and a college football national championship, turning USC into a powerhouse in the 2000s with two titles. Prior to becoming USC’s head coach, Carroll had stints as a head coach with the New York Jets and the New England Patriots in the 1990s. Carroll has a 173-144-1 career record as an NFL head coach.
When the Raiders hire their next head coach, it will mark the third head coach they’ve had in three seasons and the sixth head coach they’ve had (including interims) since 2021. Following Jon Gruden’s firing during the 2021 season, the Raiders hired Josh McDaniels to replace interim Rich Bisaccia. McDaniels was fired during the 2023 season, with Pierce replacing him on an interim basis before becoming the full-time head coach ahead of the 2024 season.
The Raiders haven’t made the playoffs since 2021, posting a losing record in each of the last four seasons.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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