All that has ailed the Las Vegas Raiders was not going to be fixed in one year, but Pete Carroll has proven to be a bad fit for a rebuild that is going to take several seasons. Such was the general folly of hiring a 73, now 74-year-old, head coach who was always going to want to "win now."
Carroll should be one-and-done as the Raiders' head coach. That is the best move for both sides, however it is they choose to frame the breakup. The team can move on, and Carroll can avoid further tarnishing his legacy in a situation he is not equipped to lead the fixing of.
But if Carroll has no interest in his departure being labeled as a "mutual parting of ways," there should be no problem with labeling the move as a firing. It'd just be semantics for the same end game anyway, even if a simple firing is lined up to be a bit more costly for the Raiders.
It seems unlikely that Carroll's football IQ just completely went to zero after a year away, but he also wasn't the Raiders' first choice to be the head coach last offseason. Frankly, they are not an organization that's in a position to get their top choice for any key position in the football operation.
Appeal of Raiders' head coaching job is tied to a core problem that isn't going away
ESPN's Bill Barnwell has ranked eight NFL head coaching jobs that are already open, or which he believes could be when the season is over. The Raiders, of course, made the cut, and they came in last on the list.
"Welp. We're back again for another go-around in Las Vegas, where the Raiders enjoy a fervent fan base and zero income tax for potential free agents -- and somehow seem further from winning than ever before," Barnwell wrote. "I was optimistic about the gambit of adding Pete Carroll, Chip Kelly and Geno Smith this offseason, but Kelly has already been fired, Smith has been one of the worst quarterbacks in the league this year and Carroll has been unable to stamp any sort of competence on one of the league's worst teams."
Unfortunately, most of Raider Nation bought into the same optimism that Barnwell did. Things just looked so good on paper, but as always, things went haywire as soon as the season began.
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Barnwell then got down to the brass tacks of why the Raiders' job opening would be (and probably will be) so unappealing.
"Owner Mark Davis is in a hopeless situation, albeit one entirely of his own making. The Raiders have now been through four permanent coaches (Jack Del Rio, Jon Gruden, Josh McDaniels and Antonio Pierce) over the past nine seasons, with Carroll in danger of becoming the fifth," Barnwell pointed out. "I'm not sure Del Rio should have been fired 12 months after leading the Raiders to a 12-4 record and a playoff berth, but the other coaches didn't do anything to justify holding on to their jobs. Is anyone going to be capable of building a sustainably successful Raiders team?"
Mark Davis did not inherit the personality or trademark flair of his father. At the peak of his powers as the Raiders' owner, Al Davis also regularly made good hires. This brought Barnwell all the way to the core problem attached to being the Raiders' head coach.
"I'll say the same thing I've been saying for more than half a decade now: The only way the Raiders are going to turn things around is by hiring the right coach and the right talent evaluator and letting them spend years fixing the roster," Barnwell wrote. "This organization needs to stack drafts before it can credibly compete in the long term with the Broncos, Chargers and Chiefs, let alone the rest of the AFC. Davis has shown little aptitude for hiring those people and little patience in letting them work, which makes this a difficult opportunity to recommend."
Combine a lack of aptitude to hire the right people with a lack of patience to give chosen hires sufficient time, and you get what Mark Davis has been since becoming the Raiders' owner. And that is why the Raiders' head coaching job will be unappealing to those with options until further notice.
Last offseason, Ben Johnson and several other coaches spurned the Raiders during the hiring cycle. But unless or until someone else is in a credible position to take on greater influence, it is going to be more of the same for the Silver and Black and Raider Nation.