The Las Vegas Raiders entered the offseason with several major questions about the direction of the franchise.
Mark Davis and his hiring committee began answering them on Wednesday when they hired John Spytek as their next general manager, and continued putting the pieces together by hiring Super Bowl winner Pete Carroll to be the team's next head coach.
But one major question remains for the Raiders. Who will be the team's franchise quarterback?
The first important step in trying to figure this out is looking at Carroll's history at the position.
Who has played quarterback for Pete Carroll?
Carroll has made several stops as a head coach since 1994, both at the professional and collegiate level. Below is a list of his starting quarterbacks by year:
Boomer Esiason (1994 New York Jets)
Drew Bledsoe (1997-99 New England Patriots)
Carson Palmer (2001-02 University of Southern California)
Matt Leinart (2003-05 USC)
John David Booty (2006-07 USC)
Mark Sanchez (2008 USC)
Matt Barkley (2009 USC)
Matt Hasselbeck (2010 Seattle Seahawks)
Tarvaris Jackson (2011 Seattle Seahawks)
Russell Wilson (2012-21 Seattle Seahawks)
Geno Smith (2022-23 Seattle Seahawks)
Obviously, this is an impressive list. But it tells a deeper story.
Carroll has shown that he is willing to inherit a team's previous quarterback, as he did with Esiason, Bledsoe, Palmer and Hasselbeck. He's also no stranger to starting experienced players, as both David Booty and Sanchez were juniors before they ever took the field at USC.
However, he is not opposed to making changes either and giving young players the keys like he did with freshman Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley, or rookie Russell Wilson.
The longtime head coach is not afraid of a quarterback competition either, as he brought in Matt Flynn to compete with the incumbent Tarvaris Jackson and a rookie Wilson in 2012. He did the same in 2022 when he acquired Drew Lock via trade and had him compete with the backup at the time, Geno Smith, for the starting job.
While Carroll, by and large, has chosen experienced players when starting somewhere new, his diversity in quarterback choice lends no hints about what he may do in Las Vegas.
It is worth pointing out, however, that his most successful seasons - his two Super Bowl appearances and two National Championships - were on the backs of players that he developed himself (Wilson and Leinart).
Based on this history, all options are on the table for Las Vegas.
They have a competent quarterback on the roster in Aidan O'Connell, but he is far from being a franchise player. The Raiders are also equipped with the No. 6 pick in the draft, where a quarterback could fall to, but there are several solid options on Day 2 as well like Jaxson Dart, Jalen Milroe and Quinn Ewers.
While the free agent class is not spectacular for the quarterback position this year, players like Justin Fields and Sam Darnold are certainly worth looking at.
Carroll has connections with several active quarterbacks, most notably Russell Wilson, who is set to be a free agent this year as well. Based on how their time together ended in 2021, it is unlikely that the two would reunite in Las Vegas, but nothing is impossible.
Geno Smith was most recently under center for Carroll and is entering a contract year with the Seahawks. A trade could be in play to acquire Smith if he is not extended, but sending picks for a quarterback has never been a part of Carroll's philosophy.
While it is frustrating to not have a franchise quarterback locked in for years to come, the Raiders' saving grace is that they are not paying large sums of money to a quarterback who cannot get the job done. The only thing worse than not having a quarterback is paying the wrong one.
It will be interesting to see how Carroll addresses the Raiders' biggest need this offseason. Luckily for Las Vegas, the other teams around the league are unlikely to have a beat on it either.