The Las Vegas Raiders have had a carousel of underwhelming coaches in recent seasons, but Pete Carroll was brought in during the offseason to right the ship. After all, the veteran coach came to Las Vegas as a proven culture-builder with a Super Bowl ring under his belt.
Unfortunately, things haven't gone quite as swimmingly with the Raiders as they did during his peak with the Seattle Seahawks. Las Vegas is off to a 1-4 start during the 2025 NFL season despite Carroll and general manager John Spytek having the liberty to reconstruct the roster this offseason.
While there are plenty of places to point the finger for the team's struggles through the first five weeks, Carroll is not exactly absolved of blame. In fact, his stubbornness with certain personnel decisions is sinking the Raiders this year.
Pete Carroll continues to make crucial personnel mistakes for Raiders
Of course, his first big decision as the head coach was to bring in Geno Smith, which has been a catastrophe so far. Nobody could have predicted Smith being as bad as he's been, but Carroll stuck his neck out for him, and Smith wouldn't be in Las Vegas if not for Carroll, so it's been a bad look.
Another key error was fixing something that wasn't broken: the interior offensive line. Jackson Powers-Johnson thrived at center last year, Dylan Parham performed well at right guard, and Jordan Meredith was an emerging star at both guard spots.
So what did Carroll do? He moved Meredith to center, a position he had never played, flipped Parham to left guard, where he struggled at the beginning of his career, and moved Powers-Johnson to right guard and made him compete with an aging and declining Alex Cappa for a starting spot.
These three aren't the only ones playing out of position. Isaiah Pola-Mao is a talented player who shone on defense last year as a chess piece, playing in both the slot and in the box. This year, however, he's struggled, having been turned into a full-on free safety with little alignment diversity.
We also detailed how veteran defensive tackle Adam Butler has not had the same impact as he has in years past due to a tweak in how they are lining him up. Pair this with other defensive linemen like Maxx Crosby and Malcolm Koonce dropping back into coverage frequently, and fans really start to question Carroll simply based on how he is setting up his players.
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Then, fans need to look at other decisions, like how often certain players are playing, and who is wrongfully getting opportunities over another deserving player. The most obvious example of this is making Raheem Mostert a healthy scratch for three games instead of Zamir White, only for White to contribute nothing to the offense, and the rushing attack getting a jolt when Mostert finally plays.
The same can be said for rookie wideout Jack Bech, who was relegated to almost no role behind fellow rookie Dont'e Thornton Jr., despite the latter obviously struggling on the field. They're clearly different kinds of players, but there was no effort to get Bech out there for Thornton amid his troubles during the first few weeks.
Charles Snowden also played just as much as Tyree Wilson did in Week 5 against the Indianapolis Colts, and Jamal Adams has been stuck playing a complementary role behind Devin White, when he should have been starting all season.
Pair this with odd situations like the departures of Christian Wilkins, Amari Cooper and Germaine Pratt, as well as the ever-present Jakobi Meyers contract situation, and things are quite a mess in Las Vegas.
Where Carroll was supposed to provide stability for the Raiders, things have gone buck wild once again under his watch. While he is incredibly experienced and knowledgeable about the game, he seems a bit stubborn and stuck in his ways.
His in-game adjustments have left something to be desired, certainly, but his personnel choices and big-picture decisions have also been highly questionable. There is something to be said for patience and not letting emotions get to him so he makes rash decisions, but being adaptable is also important.
Carroll did things right for so long that it may be tough for the veteran coach to accept that he has to change. But if he can't do that, then this flaw may continue to sink the Raiders in 2025 and beyond.