The Las Vegas Raiders haven't just been bad during the 2025 NFL season. They're in serious danger of being the worst team in the franchise's long history and one of just four Raiders squads to finish with two or fewer wins, the most recent of which came in 2006.
Yes, the Raiders have a young team, and they didn't invest a whole lot in the free agent market this past offseason. But head coach Pete Carroll has failed to get the most out of his players, and almost all of the team's major issues can be traced back to their 74-year-old leader.
Las Vegas is likely to have a top-3 pick and ample salary cap space this offseason, and they already have a decent young nucleus to build around. But Carroll is not the man to get this job done, and the Raiders' gnarly streak that he can't break is the perfect encapsulation of why.
Raiders' brutal AFC West losing streak isn't ending under Pete Carroll
Antonio Pierce earned the full-time head coaching position ahead of the 2024 season, in large part due to the fact that he ran the table in the AFC West, going 3-0 against the division to finish the season. The following year, however, he went 0-6.
Carroll was eventually hired by the Raiders because the organization felt that they needed an experienced head coach to compete with the likes of Andy Reid, Sean Payton and Jim Harbaugh. That certainly hasn't been the case.
The Raiders are 0-5 against the AFC West in 2025, extending their divisional losing streak to 11 games. All that's left is a Week 18 game against the Kansas City Chiefs, whom they lost to 31-0 in their last matchup, so Las Vegas should finish winless in the AFC West for the second straight year.
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To make matters worse, the Raiders haven't even competed in four of their five division games. Other than a sloppy 10-7 loss on Thursday Night Football to the Denver Broncos, they've been blown out twice by the Los Angeles Chargers, once by the Chiefs, and been beaten soundly by Denver.
Las Vegas has been outscored 116-47 in its five AFC West showdowns, and 10 of its 47 points came in garbage time with Kenny Pickett leading the charge. They're losing by an average of nearly two touchdowns per game, which means Las Vegas is not really in the ballpark with their rival teams.
If Carroll and his team had shown any semblance of improvement this year, then perhaps the veteran coach should be given another chance. But this Raiders team is much worse than they were to begin the year, and they're not getting any closer to winning an AFC West game.
In the NFL, the surest way to have sustained success is to be the best team in your division. The Silver and Black are light-years away from that under Carroll, and their 11-game losing streak against the Chiefs, Broncos and Chargers won't ever come to an end if he's still at the helm.