Pete Carroll didn’t leave the mark on the Raiders he was hoping to make, and after his firing on Monday, it seems like reasonable therapy to look back at the five biggest mistakes the future Hall of Fame head coach made in his 11 months in Las Vegas.
Carroll will go down as one of the legendary coaches in college and NFL history, but his time with the Raiders was a disaster and it’s fair to talk about the mistakes he made.
From bad to worst, here are the five biggest fumbles of Carroll’s one and only season with the Raiders.
5. The season-long offensive line debacle
It started with Jackson Powers-Johnson in training camp and ended with an offensive line shuffle at the end of the season that still doesn’t make any sense.
Until his injury, Powers-Johnson was in an unexplainable battle to hold on to his starting job, and no one was able to figure out the real issue between Powers-Johnson and the coaching staff.
“I don’t understand the rhetorical game [Carroll] is playing with Jackson Powers-Johnson,” former Raiders offensive lineman Marshall Newhouse said on the Just Win podcast in October.
“If you can believe that he’s a better center than guard… I think he’s a big game-changing guard. I think outside of the mental aspect, a guard has a little bit more impact than the center because guys are lined up going the right way. I think a really good guard gives you a little bit more options as an offensive unit. We saw him just flying around. I mean, pinballing against people, just using power, aggressiveness, even on a couple of the interceptions he made the tackle on the interception.”
Carroll and the coaching staff clearly had their favorites along the offensive line this season.
Powers-Johnson and the rookies clearly weren’t among that group.
4. Carroll’s impact on Patrick Graham’s defense
The return of Graham was celebrated in February, but according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vinny Bonsignore, there were some who thought the two were an awkward match from the start.
“There [were] people reaching out to me yesterday that know football, that watch football and have been watching this team. It’s clear that there is a lack of an alignment between what Pete Carroll wants to do defensively, what Patrick Graham wants to do defensively,” Bonsignore said on the Vegas Nation First and 10 podcast in December.
“It’s been happening all year. I was told at the very beginning of the year, before when Pat was retained, keep an eye on that because they do things completely different. Their systems are completely different.”
As the season progressed, the Raiders’ defense increasingly looked like Carroll’s old Cover 3 defenses from Seattle, and they ended the season playing (by far) the most Cover 3 of any team in the NFL.
3. Carroll’s unwillingness to play the rookies
Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter talked about the rookies on his Friday podcast and said there are people in the building frustrated with the way the coaching staff utilized the rookies this year.
“And I’m going to tell you, after Sunday’s game, there’s going to be a ton of hard questions. Okay, a ton,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.
Carroll was hesitant to lean on the draft class even after the Raiders were eliminated from playoff contention and GM John Spytek was definitely one of those in the building who took notice.
“We’re looking for someone to build this the right way and not think that we’ve got to produce 10 wins or whatever next year,” Spytek said at Monday’s press conference.
“That’d be great to do, and we see teams like the Patriots and the Jaguars flip it. I’ve always kind of thought that you’re never as good in this league as you think you are, and you’re never as far away as you think you are.”
2. The decision to hire Brennan Carroll as the offensive line coach
The Raiders featured the worst offensive line in the NFL this season and Carroll’s decision to hire his son as the offensive line coach and run game coordinator turned out to be a disaster.
At the mid-point in the season, former Raider great Lincoln Kennedy talked about Carroll’s decision to hire Brennan Carroll.
“He’s the coach’s son. I mean, look, I’m not one who wants to mix business with family. Okay. Trust me… I don’t do that. But at the same point, at this position, something’s got to happen,” Kennedy said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show podcast in November.
“I’m not that fire guy. I’ve never been that… because, look, I don’t want to get into coaching because I don’t want to live with my bags packed, but also because of reasons like this. The fact that the players are out there not doing well, sometimes they’re in the wrong position. That does have something to do with coaching. At the same point, it also has to do with execution.”
Shortly after it was announced that Carroll was fired, The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen said the decision to hire Carroll’s son was one of the 74-year-old head coaches biggest mistakes of the season.
Nguyen said the younger Carroll was not known to be a “detail-oriented guy” during his tenure with the team, which makes sense considering the offensive line wasn’t a detail oriented offensive line at many points during the season.
1. The trade for Geno Smith and subsequent contract extension
By his own admission, Geno Smith was Carroll’s hand-picked quarterback and the decision to give up a third-round pick for Smith would have been bad enough…
But the Raiders also felt inspired to give Smith a contract extension to the tune of two years, $75 million on top of the mistake of trading for him in the first place.
Smith’s play was an embarrassment this season and his interactions with the fans were no better.
He was brought to the team to be a leader, but he ended up getting in squabbles with fans and it was relatively well known that many of his teammates lost faith in him well before the end of the season.
Nevertheless, Carroll kept running Geno on the field every week he was healthy. It made for a miserable season, but at least Geno’s presence played a big role in the Raiders earning the first pick in the 2026 draft…
A reward the organization and the fan base definitely deserved after one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history.
x: @raidersbeat
Well, I guess Raider Nation than already heard. John Harbaugh has been let go by the Ravens. That’s if he’s wants the Raiders head coach position
Give him a interview better than and now another one Nagy from the chefs
Pete’s first mistake was to sign Geno Smith instead of Gino Toretta.
Brady has a large say blame him he’s picked two coaches gone now r you all waiting for the thilird one to be the charm let the gm owner president decide
What