The Pete Carroll era in Las Vegas is off to a bumpy start, and there is no shortage of theories around why the Raiders have been so bad in the first half of the season.
The coaching staff and players are ultimately responsible, but not everyone believes there has to be a scapegoat this early in the process.
Former Raiders’ running back (yes, technically, a fullback) was asked about Carroll and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly this week and he believes the players and coaches just need more time together.
“It’s not translating because it just takes time,” Reece said on the Up and Adams Show.
“It takes a lot of time. I think we’ve been enamored with the instant gratification of some of these coaches who come in and can hit the ground running, but Pete set out for a year, and when it comes down to it, you have a rookie running back who has the ability to be sensational, but it takes time to have continuity on the offensive line. You have a brand-new offensive coordinator in Chip Kelly, who comes with a different creative type of scheme. So those types of things take time.
The defense is good at times and shows spurts. You know, obviously with Maxx [Crosby] is an absolute superstar and game wrecker. It just takes time to build continuity between a team. A lot of new pieces.”
Reece is in the minority when it comes to evaluating the 2025 season through a lens of patience, and many believe Kelly has an uphill climb to hold on to his job after the season.
One of those who thinks Kelly could be a one-and-done in Las Vegas is former Raiders’ offensive lineman Lincoln Kennedy.
“They’ve made no improvements [on offense]. As a matter of fact, they’ve regressed and it’s disappointing because the way these things sort of fall out is that I don’t see Pete Carroll going anywhere for another year, at least,” Kennedy said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show podcast.
“It’s probably going to have to happen to Chip Kelly,” Kennedy continued, seemingly talking about Kelly losing his job at the end of the season. “Then you’re going to have in fighting from what type of things that Q has talked about. It just hasn’t taken off and they need to be better. They need to be more efficient. They need to give their defense a chance if they’re going to win any more games.”
“This is so disappointing because I’ve never seen an offense struggle with some of the most simple and primary plays. You can’t get a first down on a third down and short. You have trouble scoring from the three-yard line when you got first down and goal. I mean, these things bug the hell out of me as an offensive lineman. There’s going to be some major changes. And the first thing I hope they do is figure out this offensive line. Because they’ve got to piece this thing together.”
Seemingly in agreement with Kennedy was former Raiders’ quarterback Rich Gannon, who hit the ‘like’ button on Kennedy’s comments this week.
Although… isn’t it true the ‘like’ button is sometimes just a means to save a post on social media?
Whose idea was it to call it a ‘like’ button in the first place?
x: @raidersbeat
Most preseason predictions had the Raiders somewhere between 3-6 wins this year. 5 wins would technically be considered marginally better then last season. 2 wins would only be a slight drop from last year.
Technically with 8 games to go the Raiders are going to fall right within the prediction range. I don’t see them winning 4 more games. However it is possible looking at the remaining schedule they could win another 1-3 games this season.
I think the real Raider fans let themselves be fooled because the Raiders pulled out a win week 1 in New England. The reality is though there record is about what it should be at this point. If not for a few miscues on special teams they could have won 3 additional games. Which would put them at 5-4 now. That however would just mean they were over achieving.
The Raiders were not supposed to contend for anything this season other then another pick in the top 5 of the 26 college draft. Anything else was just wishful thinking by the Raider fans. Reece is correct.
Yes but I been a fan of the raiders nation since 1979 and we haven’t really accomplished a good season since the fake play call of this call called TUCK rule everyone and they grandma know that the call was made up out of nowhere and let’s not forget the beef between The late Al Davis (rip) and the commissioner at that time had about moving the raiders back to LA for as the commissioner wasn’t good for the raiders but Al Davis didn’t care he moved his team wherever he liked and in result the raiders have been getting all kinds of weird things happening to them on the strength of their beefing but now Al Davis and the commissioner from that time are both dead and gone and the team is struggling very hard to be put back in playoff form crazy right even Tom Bradly felt bad so he buys a percentage of the team to give back since it was the raiders being wrongfully played so Bradly can exceed to his first Superbowl I’m not madd just upset because it’s not fair actually the raiders is the only team that’s scheduled to fail before the season even starts we can’t never get the players we need to succeed for an example shedur Sanders we had him locked in but the NFL people that won’t let the raiders get ahead knew we were actually picking Sanders so they black balled him and made the browns pick him a team he already mentally before that he doesn’t even wanna play for the browns but the NFL leaders allow Elle Manning decide what team he wants to play for yal tell me it seems like a black or white thing you ask me so on the Strength of God please let the raiders join the NFL like any other team in the NFL please it’s been like 45 seasons struggling to be in the playoffs help us ALL Oh Lord I pray that all teams are created equal with Gods Blessings Amen 🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯