Pete Carroll may not have been the Las Vegas Raiders' first choice to be their new head coach. But the credibility his name comes with was an automatic win for the organization, and the 73-year-old coach is a beacon of hope for Raider Nation that things can turn around quickly.
Carroll has set an unwavering tone of competition and energy from the start of his tenure. During training camp practices, he's seen engaging with nearly every player, doing wind sprints and bringing a level of excitement that he expects to see reciprocated by his staff and players.
Of course, the veteran leader would say that any success the team enjoys is shared and a credit to everyone involved. Carroll is also setting things up for his eventual successor to carry on the torch, but for right now, he has put together an incredible staff in Las Vegas that is already being praised.
ESPN spotlights core of Pete Carroll's impact on the Raiders
ESPN's Ben Solak recently ranked every NFL coaching staff ahead of the 2025 NFL season. The Raiders came in dead last during last year's ranking under Antonio Pierce, and they're all the way up to No. 9 this year.
"It required an unspeakable amount of personal control to not put the Raiders in the top five," Solak wrote. "There are few head coaches I have more faith in than Carroll, who consistently does the following: gets great performance out of rookies; prepares backups well (and accordingly coaches around injury); and adjusts his defensive scheming to the players available, protecting them from their faults. There are few better culture coaches in football, but his scheming -- much lauded in the early 2010s -- has become underappreciated."
Carroll is as surefire a hire the Raiders have had in recent memory. One coach that fans had a few quarrels about, however, was offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. Solak does not share this sentiment.
"I also have a huge amount of faith in Kelly. An offensive coordinator role suits him better than the head coaching jobs (Eagles and 49ers) that overwhelmed him in the mid-2010s, as he won't have control over personnel," Solak wrote. "Indeed, his offense over the past few years (in college at UCLA and Ohio State) has become far more oriented to heavier personnel and a diverse running game -- the sort of stuff that's cooking in the league right now."
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Kelly is the new coordinator in the building, but Patrick Graham stayed on with the new regime to run the Raiders' defense. Some fans were questioning if this was the correct move, and Solak put those worries to rest.
"And finally, three words on Graham: good defensive coordinator," Solak wrote. "The Raiders ranked second in defensive success rate down the back half of last season, behind only the Ravens and just above the Eagles. Of course, they've lost over 5,000 snaps from that unit in free agent departures, and now Christian Wilkins is off the team. But hey, Graham is a good defensive coordinator."
Solak then summed up the impact of Carroll's presence in just a few key words that really say everything Raider Nation has been feeling about the team's new leadership.
"The Raiders were poorly managed at the top last season, but today is a new day. I'm expecting a big leap in competence," Solak wrote.
The Raiders have been poorly managed, to put it mildly, by whoever their head coach has been for a long time. Poor results have naturally flowed from that, but with Carroll steering the ship now, a new day has dawned for the Silver and Black.