The Las Vegas Raiders are on the verge of something special, as just two losses stand in their way of the coveted No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. In what seems like an obvious tank move, the Raiders have placed Brock Bowers, Jeremy Chinn and Jordan Meredith on Injured Reserve this week.
While the games will still need to be played, being down three starters, especially one like Bowers, is a recipe for losing. Las Vegas scored a total of 26 points in the three games that Bowers missed earlier this season, so both the New York Giants and Kansas City Chiefs' defenses will be at an advantage.
These moves, while they certainly increase the Raiders' chances of ascending to the top of the draft board, certainly call into question Pete Carroll's future in Las Vegas. Yes, it is quite obvious that he should not be the coach next year, but some trusted voices aren't so sure anymore.
Raiders' Pete Carroll may not be coaching his last two games in Las Vegas
On Wednesday, following the news that the Raiders placed Bowers and Chinn on IR, Bleacher Report's Moe Moton, one of the most trusted voices in the fan base, made a post on social media. He seems to be having a hard time believing that Carroll will get fired after the team's recent moves.
"Making the call to Pete Carroll to rest players and then firing him would be a cold-blooded way for his head coaching tenure to end," Moton wrote. "Feels like Carroll has a chance at another year with the Raiders."
In a way, Moton could be correct. Raiders fans certainly don't want Carroll to stick around, but owner Mark Davis seemingly has too much decorum to strip the roster down like this in the final weeks and make Carroll a lame duck head coach. Carroll is a legend, and he doesn't deserve to go out like that.
On the other hand, however, he hasn't exactly been a legend in Las Vegas. Rather, he's been a failure. In fact, his magnum opus with the franchise may be coaching the team to a bad enough record that the Raiders get the top overall pick and land a potentially transformational franchise quarterback.
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But with a reportedly weak slew of candidates set to be available during the coaching cycle this offseason, and Carroll recently changing his tune about wanting to help with a rebuild in Las Vegas, the gears certainly seem to be shifting toward him staying. Perhaps the Raiders are at least open to it.
Various reports from the national media would indicate that Carroll is on incredibly thin ice, and Raider Nation is clinging to that. But Mark Davis can be a wildcard, and he's clearly struggled with making the right decisions as it pertains to the head coaching post in recent years.
Benching Bowers, Chinn and Meredith feels like a play for next year, and Tom Pelissero's report confirmed that. It is hard to imagine that Carroll didn't sign off on this, so perhaps he and the front office are aligned on how to approach the offseason and the 2026 campaign.
Or, someone above Carroll stepped in at the zero hour and wanted to strip the veteran head coach of his weapons before he headed into battle. That way, he couldn't screw the organization out of their ticket to get out of the mess that he helped cause. It's one or the other. Hopefully, the latter.