The Raiders’ first season with head coach Pete Carroll has not gone as planned, and after losing four of their last five games, it’s fair to wonder if Carroll’s tenure in Las Vegas could be as short lived as some of his predecessors.
Given the way the team has played in recent weeks, the Raiders are moving towards an all-out rebuild after the season, and Yahoo Sports host Jason Fitz, who is a regular on the Raiders’ flagship radio station, thinks the head coaching situation in Las Vegas should change sooner than later if Carroll doesn’t turn the season around.
Fitz is one of the most respected commenters in the Raider media circles, so it’s no small statement when he shares an opinion like the one he did this week.
“Pete Carroll needs to step down as the coach of the Raiders,” Fitz said on Tuesday. “Maybe not today. Maybe not until the end of the season, but it is now abundantly clear that he is not going to be the answer for what long-term ails the franchise.”
“You know me… I think it’s fair to say I’m not over reactionary or a shock jock and I think you also know that as we came into this season, my expectations were that the Raiders would be a seven-win team. I didn’t come in calling for the playoffs. So when I say this, I’m not saying this because wild expectations weren’t being met. I’m saying this because the timeline no longer meets the coach’s timeline.”
“It’s really simple,” Fitz continued. “When you have a coach that openly admitted at the podium this week that they are further behind than he expected they would be, my question becomes what does the real rebuild look like?”
“It’s obviously not Geno [Smith] with Chip Kelly. It’s obviously not working this season, so now you’ve got to look at it and say ‘Okay, are we going to draft a quarterback? Are we going to bring in a new offensive staff? Are we going to start this glorious rebuild process?’ And if you do that, how do you do that with a coach that’s already the oldest coach in NFL history to stand on the sideline during a game?”
“There’s no way, in my mind If you are starting a rebuild, which I believe takes 2 or 3 seasons, Pete Carroll won’t be around to see the end of it. So, the sooner you figure out who’s actually going to run your team through the next 10 years through this rebuild process, the better for the organization.”
Pete Carroll turned 74 in September and even though he hasn’t shown signs of slowing down, the future Hall of Fame head coach hasn’t made a strong case for himself in the first seven weeks of the season.
On the other side of the argument, though, is the fact that Mark Davis has fired two head coaches in the last 24 months.
Firing Josh McDaniels and Antonio Pierce might have been explainable decisions, but firing a living legend after one season would be a new low for what should be one of the proudest organizations in all of sports.
x: @raidersbeat
He knows how to build a program. leave him be. the team he inherited is trash. geno is a 1 year guy. the tank and rebuild is already on.
The game has passed him by. He needs to be fired, this fool said the Raiders were ready to “win now.” He also brought in Geno Smith at 35 years old and gave him 40 mil a year, guaranteed over 65 mil. One of the worst Raiders coaches ever and that’s saying something.
Carroll is a clown and it’s apparent he has say over Spytek which is awful because the GM is supposed to be able to run the team how he sees fit not answer to the coach.
Why is Chip Kelly even being brought up as an issue? We have a QB who is about as smart as a box of rocks, an O line that can’t block or protect him, a starting WR in Thornton who does absolutely nothing game after game, a star TE that’s been injured, to go along with the fact that the retard QB can’t read a defense.
And this is Chip Kelly’s fault how?
NO ONE, NO OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR ON EARTH CAN WORK IN THIS SITUATION.
I like Chip and although I’ve been hard on Spytek but I’m starting to think he’s a pawn between Brady & Pete
Carroll can’t be allowed to pick the team. He traded Jakotian Bennett and picked Kyu Blu Kelly as a starter and he’s the worst rated defender in the entire NFL.
“Proud organization?”
This team has had nothing to be proud of for over two decades. 😂
Mark Davis is the real problem with this team!
Bingo!
You know, whenever you see these so-called expert writers or commentators making all the
Comments about professional players, and coaches etc.., you have to consider the source.
I wonder how much football or sports in general were they good at! They are paid to begin
speculation and spectacularization of miserable situations. Just put the pen down when you
have nothing to report. Instead of trying to create negative stories to instigate negative
results to report.
Kinda of agree and kinda not. What did he say that was wrong? Simple observation from anyone can see that the season is not what Pete thought would happen. Now most rational Raider fans knew this was a disaster from the Brady BS buy in to the wacky hire of Spytek and Pete. Mark chose to once again listen to the wrong guy. There were plenty of better options that would’ve been better than the Front office and coaches that we have now, but Brady made this bed. His fingerprints are everywhere and the terrible season and ominous future are the result.
Clean the whole house. Chip is a college coach who’s implementing a college offense in the NFL. Carroll needs to go, didn’t like this signing at all, along with Geno. What the hell, Raiders been building since 2002 , and have not gotten anywhere. It us the same dysfunctional team tear in and year out with different faces.
Mark Davis is the problem! He doesn’t care about winning. It’s apparent. He moved the Raiders away from home (Oakland) just to increase their value. When mommy passes, he’s selling and taking the $. We had McKenzie and DelRio and we were building a solid team. Drafted Carr and put him thru how many coaches, coordinators, and systems?? We have dysfunction instead of continuity………
If Pete Carroll can’t straighten this mess out,then nobody can. The Raiders organization is lucky to have someone of his proven success,to even be remotely interested in them. Anyone with any kind of football eye-que knows this wasn’t gonna happen overnight. Pete Carrol is the man for the job! Realisticly, It’s going to take a few years to build this team. What he inherited is a team with about 4 good players on it!! Pete Carrol is a winner ,and that goes without saying. Give him a break and stand behind the man instead of all your bickering, bitching,blaming, and badmouthing. That’s why year in and year out the suck, is because of all their fans negativity. I’m honored and thrilled to have Pete Carroll as the head coach.