After years of inexperienced head coaches leading the Las Vegas Raiders, owner Mark Davis stepped in and hired Pete Carroll this offseason. Now, the team has a Super Bowl-winning coach as their leader who will look to completely reset the culture in Las Vegas.
While Raider Nation was initially enamored with Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson during the coaching cycle, fans quickly realized that Carroll was a great hire. He may not have the longevity at age 73, but many think he is the kind of coach that the Silver and Black need right now.
There are doubters, however, that Carroll can keep up what he started with the Seattle Seahawks. The later years of his tenure were not as successful as his early years, and many feel that he may have reached his ceiling as a coach.
We, once again, employed the help of Lee Vowell, site expert at FanSided's "12th Man Rising," to get an honest assessment of what the Raiders can expect from their new leader.
Seahawks expert gets honest about what Raiders can expect from Pete Carroll
Is the Pete Carroll culture-shifting narrative overblown, or can fans truly expect a completely new-look Raiders team?
"Carroll will create a culture shift, and his roster will happily adapt to that. The head coach is what he seems to be: He's positive (almost irritatingly so) and full of energy. Players cannot help but buy into that. The question might be how quickly that occurs. One difference between the Seahawks in the early 2010s and the Raiders is that Carroll had final say over all roster moves in Seattle. He added players he knew would fit into his culture. But the bottom line is that there won't be locker room issues with the Raiders in the first part of the Carroll era. He is too confident and experienced for that."
The Seahawks had a lot of early success under Carroll, but plateaued a bit toward the end of his tenure. Does Carroll's magic wear off a bit as time goes on?
"Yes, but that gets complex. Players who stayed with Seattle for five or six seasons during the Seahawks' great run of success in the 2010s were tired of Carroll's unceasing positivity. They had heard all his stories before and began to tune him out. But without his energy, the team would have never been as good as it was in the first place. The likelihood, given Carroll's age, is that he won't come close to spending as much time with Las Vegas as he did in Seattle, so any concerns about players getting weary of his attitude are probably muted."
Carroll obviously has some great draft steals on his resume, but overall, can Raiders fans trust his roster-building through the draft?
"For lack of a better answer, maybe. At the beginning of his career with Seattle, the team had several excellent drafts. The 2012 class is arguably one of the best ever, as the team chose Bruce Irvin, Bobby Wagner, and Russell Wilson with their first three choices. Later drafts were poor for Carroll, though. Once things started to go south for the team in the late 2010s, he didn't seem to know how to fix things or draft his way out of problems. Carroll was also in a different situation from most coaches. He, and not general manager John Schneider, had control over all roster moves. If Carroll wanted a player in the draft, then that is who the team took. With a bit less control with the Raiders, Carroll's input should be more valuable."
What is Carroll's biggest weakness as a coach?
"Carroll's biggest weakness as a coach is oddly the same thing that makes him a good person: He stays too loyal. He keeps his coordinators too long, even if they are clearly not working out, and he is reticent to change his defensive scheme, even if opposing offenses have adjusted to what he is doing. Perhaps this won't be the case with the Raiders since Carroll is going to a different division with established offenses, and he will be adjusting to them."