Pete Carroll is an 'A' grade coach in a 'C-' situation with the Raiders

Pete Carroll left his throne as the NFL’s oldest head coach for exactly 380 days. Now he’s back to reclaim it with the Las Vegas Raiders.

Carroll and Bill Belichick both retired in the same offseason, leaving room for a youth movement in their wakes. Belichick’s new role at the University of North Carolina kept his former quarterback and current minority owner of the Raiders, Tom Brady, from bringing him to Nevada. Instead, he got the next best thing.

Hiring Carroll means Las Vegas went from elevating one of the league’s least experienced coaches to the exact opposite. Antonio Pierce had never been more than a linebackers coach at the full-time NFL level and was only a college assistant for four seasons at Arizona State before being elevated from interim to full-time head coach. That gamble paid off with a 4-13 season and Pierce’s dismissal.

Carroll, on the other hand, brings 18 years of NFL head coach experience. He filled in the gaps between Sunday stints with nine years guiding USC. He has 11 playoff wins, seven Pac-10 titles, five NFC West titles, one Super Bowl win and an NCAA national championship on his resume.

Just in: Pete Carroll and the Raiders now have reached agreement on a three-year deal with a fourth-year team option, sources tell ESPN.

Another veteran legendary coach has returned. pic.twitter.com/Jc2J0EPo7N

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 24, 2025

There’s logic to hiring a 73-year-old man beyond his accomplishments. Carroll built the Seahawks into a powerhouse behind a throwback design. His defenses were the football equivalent of a kicked hornet’s nest. His offenses leaned heavily on power runs (except for that one time) and a mobile quarterback who thrived in the short and intermediate ranges in order to set up deep shots downfield.

If that sounds familiar, its because this approach is having a resurgence. The Philadelphia Eagles built an offense around Saquon Barkley and let Jalen Hurts pick his spots in the holes created behind that. The Baltimore Ravens fielded the league’s best defense over the back half of 2024 and ground opponents into dust with Derrick Henry. Per SIS, no quarterback in the league was more successful with passes 10 to 19 yards downfield than Lamar Jackson.

All this suggests Carroll’s approach can work. Making it work in Las Vegas, however, will be difficult.

What can the Raiders offer Pete Carroll?

The Raiders quarterbacks under contract for 2025 are Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew II (with Desmond Ridder a restricted free agent). Both look like useful backups unable to guide a team to the playoffs. But they were also given little quarter from their running backs. No team in the league was less efficient when it came to handoffs than Pierce’s 2024 squad.

The Raiders’ -0.283 expected points added (EPA) per rush was the lowest mark for a full season since at least 2018, which is as far back as the advanced stats go.

A Zamir White/Sincere McCormack platoon won’t invoke memories of the Beast Quake. But reviving the run game won’t be Carroll’s top priority.

He’ll have to find a franchise quarterback who can lead his offense but, with the sixth pick in a passer-light 2025 NFL Draft, it may have to come from the $95 million in estimated salary cap space Las Vegas will have this offseason, per Over the Cap. Except, whoops, turns out this is a bad year for free agent quarterbacks. The belles of the ball may be Sam Darnold, old friend Russell Wilson or a maybe-released Kirk Cousins.

Which is all to say Carroll’s first season may be judged on how he elevates an average defense.

There’s good news on that front. Maxx Crosby is a nightmare engine. Malcolm Koonce will return to the lineup after missing all of 2024 due to injury (and coming off eight sacks in his final nine games of 2023). Tyree Wilson and Christian Wilkins lend additional bulk up front. That group can set the tone in front of what’s set to be a rebuilt secondary; three of the team’s five defensive back starters (Tre’Von Moehrig, Marcus Epps, Nate Hobbs) are pending free agents.

Hiring Carroll at a crossroad of huge cash reserves (only the New England Patriots are set to have more cap space) and a potential rash of free agent departures gives the veteran head coach exactly what he wanted. Carroll can mold this team into a form he recognizes, especially with 2024 general manager Tom Telesco already served his walking papers and a first-year GM (John Spytek) set to take his place. The Raiders looked back at a long and winding path that led to malaise and opted for a well-worn trail instead.

The question now is whether a 73-year-old can see this teardown through. Carroll’s late-stage Seahawks averaged 9.5 wins per season from 2017 to 2023 but managed a single playoff victory in that stretch. With so much work to be done , it’s fair to wonder whether heightened mediocrity is the best Carroll can do. It’s also fair to wonder if Las Vegas, having missed out on Mike Vrabel, Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn and, reportedly, Liam Coen, could have done any better.

For that reason, Carroll’s hiring nets a B-.