While fans of the Las Vegas Raiders felt like the team was a sleeping giant in the AFC ahead of the 2025 NFL season, almost nobody else had the Silver and Black amounting to much this year. Through the first five weeks of the campaign, it seems like the latter has been correct.
Head coach Pete Carroll was entrusted this offseason to rebuild the culture in Las Vegas and finally get this team to do the one thing that he preaches: constantly compete. Yet, the team is 1-4 a month into the season, and they've been blown out in three of their four defeats.
Carroll is a legendary head coach, and he seemingly brought in a coaching staff that was equipped to get the most out of an improved roster, on paper at least. But this simply hasn't been the case, and Raider Nation is having a hard time believing in his messaging without the results accompanying it.
Pete Carroll's optimism isn't resonating with Raider Nation
During his postgame press conference on Sunday afternoon following the team's 40-6 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Week 5, Carroll once again provided some optimism about the team's long-term outlook.
"We believe we're going to be much better than this," Carroll said. "The coaches do, and the players do. And we feel like we can prove it by the way we're working and the way we're preparing and all."
Raider Nation surely hopes that this is true, but the team needs to actually prove it before the fan base can rally behind comments like this. After all, Carroll has made similar comments after the team's other blowout losses, and things have yet to change.
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When asked about how he is processing the team's horrid start, Carroll was candid about how he did not expect things to start this way. But it also gave Raiders fans a funny feeling that maybe Carroll's ability to evaluate a team is not quite where it needs to be anymore.
"I'm processing it poorly, I'll tell you the truth, because I did expect to win right out of the shoots," Carroll said. "I know by the way we're working because I've watched a lot of teams work and develop your system, your belief in it, and knowing who you can count on and who you can trust and all of that. That is ongoing, and it feels like we're going in a good direction in that sense."
Fans cannot blame Carroll for still providing optimism, because that is what a good leader should do. Calling out players or blaming the refs does not actually solve anything in the long run, so at least Carroll is taking these hits on the chin.
But Carroll also told Raider Nation that the team's process has been strong, and things will eventually click.
"It's going to start sometime, and then I'm just kind of waiting for that moment where we kick it in," Carroll said. "We have the answers. We make the right choices. We make the right plays, the right calls. It's on us, all of us. It's not on the players, it's on all of us to get that right. Myself totally included in all of that."