When all is said and done, will Pete Carroll simply become another “one and done” head coach in the history of the Las Vegas Raiders?
Carroll was supposed to be the adult in the room. The steady hand. The coach who took broken rosters in Seattle, slapped a slogan on the wall, and somehow turned chaos into double-digit wins. Raiders fans did not expect miracles in Year 1, but something vaguely resembling football felt like a reasonable ask.
The Raiders somehow regressed under Pete Carroll…
Las Vegas somehow looks worse than the already-charred remains of 2024. At 2-9 entering Sunday, the Raiders have made last season’s dysfunction look organized. Antonio Pierce and Tom Telesco were dumped to escape stagnation, and Carroll and general manager John Spytek arrived to steer a real rebuild. Instead, they’ve produced two fired coordinators in 11 games, a coach already on the hot seat, and an offense that feels ripped straight from a “Seattle, 2023” time capsule.
Carroll is known for energy, positivity and the occasional gum-chomping sprint. He is not known for burning through his entire scapegoat quota before Thanksgiving. Tom McMahon lasted until a blocked punt and a missed game-tying kick in Denver. Chip Kelly survived one more week, but a 24-10 loss to Cleveland and 10 sacks of Geno Smith ended that. For the record, Las Vegas now has as many coordinator firings as wins—two apiece—which would be impressive if it weren’t so bleak.
Is Carroll’s fate sealed?
Then came Ian Rapoport’s recent bombshell, turning a bad season into an existential spiral. The offense wasn’t Kelly’s at all—it was Carroll’s, a reboot of his 2023 Seahawks blueprint. In other words, the Raiders didn’t fire their coordinator; they fired his stand-in.
That revelation, combined with the losses, has put Carroll on a trajectory toward the shortest coaching tenure in franchise history. Even the fanbase seems resigned. “Pete Carroll is so done in Vegas,” one fan posted. Another predicted he would “put on the greatest two-game coaching performance of his career, cost us the No. 1 pick, and then immediately get fired.”
Unless Carroll engineers a December miracle, the Raiders may decide that “one and done” is less an insult and more a mercy rule. The gum may still have flavor, but the texture might be out of time.
What are your thoughts, Raider Nation—is Carroll done?
*Top Photo: Ramble Illustration/Getty Images