As the season moves on and we learn more about how the Raiders have been operating over the last year, it’s becoming clear that the seeds that led to this year’s on-field disaster were planted 10 months ago.
The process that led to the Raiders’ coaching staff being hired was one doomed from the start.
Not only was Pete Carroll not the team’s first choice at head coach, but it also doesn’t seem he had a lot of say in the team’s most important coaching hires.
It was rumored for months that Chip Kelly was a “Brady guy” and while it wasn’t as popular of a talking point in the offseason, it was brought on a few occasions and isn’t a newly made-up storyline.
On Tuesday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vinny Bonsignore essentially said Kelly wasn’t even on Carroll’s radar when he took the head coaching job in Las Vegas.
“I’m going to go out on a limb… and say that when Pete Carroll was hired and they were interviewing him, I’m going to say that the last name that he ever brought up to be his offensive coordinator was Chip Kelly in that process,” Bonsignore said on Raider Nation Radio’s Morning Tailgate on Tuesday.
“If that is the case… I don’t think that was the plan… I don’t think that conversation ever happened from Pete Carroll’s perspective. And if that is the case, how big of a problem was it that maybe he was, that Chip Kelly was put on to Pete Carroll’s lap?”
What Bonsignore didn’t reference, though, is that the Raiders reportedly tried to hire a defensive coordinator in the offseason that many believe was Brady’s pick, as well.
According to The Athletic’s Mike Silver, the Raiders tried in the offseason to hire 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh to a record-breaking coordinator deal, as well.
“Saleh was even more in demand last January as a potential defensive coordinator,” Silver reported in October. “But he made it clear that if he didn’t get a head coaching job, he was overwhelmingly partial to returning to the 49ers. That conviction held even when the Raiders, after hiring 73-year-old Pete Carroll, offered Saleh a record-breaking contract to become the team’s defensive coordinator, with the understanding that he’d be in line to succeed Carroll as head coach.”
After doing some digging, it seems more than likely that the Raiders followed the same process in recruiting Saleh as they did with Kelly.
It’s a safe bet that Saleh was Brady’s pick, too, and that would make sense considering the organization was reportedly willing to put Saleh into Carroll’s succession plan at head coach.
A succession plan “understanding” isn’t something Carroll would have had the authority to determine. Only Brady and whoever else is making the most consequential decisions in the building would have been able to make that accommodation.
Carroll still doesn’t deserve a mulligan
Saleh might have been a good pick at defensive coordinator, but the more important matter is that this year’s coaching staff wasn’t put together by the head coach and that’s not a great formula for success.
Kelly wasn’t a good fit for Carroll and there is reason to believe Patrick Graham hasn’t been either.
“Pete Carroll has talked about influence in the game plan. He said in his press conference after they fired Chip Kelly that he gave Chip Kelly a lot of leeway,” The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen said this week on Raider Nation Radio’s Unnecessary Roughness.
“But it’s clear, at least in the last two games, that Carroll was a big part of the game plan,” Nguyen continued. “And there’s whispers that they had to change a lot of what Chip wanted to do early in the season because of Carroll and his son’s influence on the offense, as well. So there’s a lot of factors that go into this.”
As for Graham, Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers talked last week about the challenges Graham and Carroll have faced trying to blend their schemes together.
“I don’t know, and maybe Lincoln [Kennedy] has a better idea, I don’t know if this is necessarily 100 percent what Patrick Graham wants to run defensively. It feels like it’s a marriage between his defense and Pete Carroll’s defense,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show podcast.
Kennedy said he definitely believes Graham is doing things differently with Carroll above him.
“Yeah, that’s exactly right. I do not think this is Patrick Graham’s defense,” Kennedy said. “When I see some of the things that they’re running out there, that is not what I’ve watched Patrick Graham do in his coaching career. I think it is a collaboration between Pete Carroll and Patrick Graham. I’m certain with that.”
Whether Carroll got the coordinators he wanted or not, he hasn’t been a great fit with any of his coordinators. Further complicating the situation, Brennan Carroll has been arguably the most disappointing coach on the staff… but that’s a discussion for another time.
In hindsight, Carroll probably should have let Graham run his own scheme, and Kelly shouldn’t have been in the NFL in the first place.
Who deserves blame for the Raiders failed season?
As has been pointed out many times, there isn’t a singular person to blame for the Raiders’ 2025 disaster.
Brady deserves blame. Carroll deserved blame. Kelly may have been the worst coordinator hire the Raiders have ever made.
It all started with a bungled hiring process, and that responsibility belongs to the people at the top of the organization.
The result has been a season where no one in the organization, from top to bottom, has been at their best. No one has been put in the best position to succeed and no one has been successful.
Agree or disagree, leave your comments below.
x: @raidersbeat
And now you see why it never worked. Pete never wanted to work with Kelly and did everything he could to make it not work. He hired his so as OL coach. Do you think Chip wanted that cluster? The issue with Pete is his stubbornness, and that includes his refusal to play some of the draft picks only on the offensive side of the ball. Egos got in the way and Pete did everything to make sure it didn’t work. The main issue all season was the OL coach and he’s still here.
Yes, I disagree with him having both his son’s on the staff, if you want to give yur kid a job, then put him somewhere he’s not under your purview that way he doesn’t have to worry about firing him nor hear about how bad a job he’s doing or if he is under Pete’s employ he’d be directly reporting to someone else ie an o-line assistant coach & learn from a vet
Pete at his age is unsustainable. Better to make wise decision on HC now. Also since it’s a forgone conclusion that a No 1 pick will be a QB hire Brian Daboll. For HC hire Chris Shula. We’d be set for a dozen years
We need to jettison anyone with the past name carroll, from the shuffling of the O-line to the stubbornness at the qb position if not just to give geno some fresh eyes & break out of the shell shock sit him down for a game especially after all the int’s carroll reminds me of Dave Roberts hell let his pitcher give up run after run as a way of letting him work out his mistakes that’s what I see carroll doing with geno he throws int after int but say “he’s doing fine” we all see the mistakes being made stop trying to tell us they don’t exist that’s what really angers me it’s like Pete’s saying who you gonna believe, me or yur lying eye’s? The mixing of coaches is what we the RAIDER NATION is used to they say they want to do the things the successful teams do then stop doing what the RAIDERS do! You’re supposed to let the GM hire his HC & let that HC hire his staff Mark always thinkers with the process in some sort of way either he’ll keep a coach on & hand him gift wrapped to the new HC as if he doesn’t know how to find his own support staff now the defense looks even worse b’cuz of some Seattle stuff he wants to run with no Seattle player’s Pola-Moa is no Cam Chancellor & as good as Chinn is he’s no Earl Thomas & Porter could be good but the constant shuffle between him & Kelly is surely a confidence killer after this debacle come January please show Pete the door & let Spytek hire a young hungry coach trying to put his stamp on the league & see how that looks after 3 years hopefully he’s familiar with the roster & doesn’t make too many wholesale changes so the transition can be somewhat seamless🏴☠️☠️🏁💯
AP had team playing hard for him he had the locker room Graham was the DC Scott Turner with the office of coordinator at the end they had the locker room all we needed was a quarterback and here we now find ourselves looking at the same old problems need a quarterback couple Young guns coming out by the name of Manning and company got a group of young coaches like Shula from the Rams you need to look at him he’s going to become a hot name and you better jump on him fast just Carol s*** show so far the big fat F
The Masque-Raiders!!!