The Las Vegas Raiders are wrapping up their third coaching search in the last four years, and have landed one of the most experienced candidates on the market to bring stability to the franchise.
The Raiders are set to hire former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll as their next head coach, according to multiple media reports. Carroll will become the oldest head coach in NFL history upon coaching his first game with the Raiders but will still look to bring his energetic, culture-driven approach to Las Vegas.
Carroll’s return to the NFL comes after he spent the 2024 season out of coaching. The 2025 campaign will be his 19th season running an NFL team with four different franchises, and his experience could prove valuable to a Raiders team that needs to change its direction.
Here’s a look at the biggest winners and losers of Carroll reportedly joining the Raiders.
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Winners
Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders have struggled to find head coaching stability since Jon Gruden stepped down from his post after emails containing racist, homophobic and misogynistic remarks that he sent while working for ESPN were leaked to the media. Carroll gives them one of the NFL’s best culture-builders and a proven winner to boot.
Carroll has a 170-120-1 career record across his 18 seasons as an NFL head coach and won Super Bowl 48 with the Seahawks. He might not immediately bring the Raiders to such heights, but Carroll’s teams have posted a winning record in 11 of his last 12 seasons. By comparison, the Raiders have just 11 winning campaigns since 1984, so this hiring certainly raises their floor.
Pete Carroll
Carroll didn’t seem like he was ready to be done coaching during the 2024 NFL offseason. Here’s what he said about his coaching future on on Seattle Sports’ Brock & Salk Show just two days before he stepped down as the Seahawks’ head coach.
‘I plan to be coaching this team, I told you I love these guys,’ Carroll said. ‘That’s what I would like to be doing and see how far we can go.’
As such, it’s not surprising Carroll jumped at the chance to return to the NFL. Still, it wasn’t clear whether he would get an opportunity, as he is set to be the oldest coach in league history when he returns to the sidelines. Now, he has, and getting to build up another once-proud program on the west coast seems like a perfect fit for Carroll’s unique coaching skill set.
Tom Brady
It initially seemed like Brady and the Raiders were going to have a difficult hiring cycle after Ben Johnson decided to join the Chicago Bears despite interest from Las Vegas. Brady and Co. quickly rebounded and getting a successful veteran like Carroll should help to slightly restore the Raiders’ image and hopefully put an end to Mark Davis’ ever-spinning coaching carousel.
Russell Wilson
Wilson wanted to join the Raiders during the 2024 NFL offseason, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. Could he have a chance to do so in 2025 given his relationship with Carroll?
Reports existed of tension between Wilson and Carroll late in the quarterback’s tenure with the Seahawks. However, Jeff Howe of The Athletic reports the two parties have ‘mended fences’ since their rocky breakup; and Wilson said in 2024 he had a ‘good relationship’ with Carroll and flew to Seattle to celebrate the coach stepping down from his coaching post.
‘He was like a father figure to me,’ Wilson said of Carroll on the I AM ATHLETE podcast. ‘To me, going back to see Pete was because of the love that was there. I got no hate in my heart. Just love. Just love in my heart.’
With that in mind Las Vegas looks like a more realistic landing spot for the 36-year-old Wilson. The Raiders need a stopgap and Carroll’s history with Wilson may make him the ideal candidate for the job.
Losers
Tennessee Titans
The Titans own the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL draft and are likely hoping they can trade it to a quarterback-needy team for a bounty of picks. Their options for doing so may have decreased by one after Carroll’s hiring.
The Seahawks never traded up in the first round of the NFL draft while Carroll was in Seattle. They also never drafted a quarterback before the third round during his tenure, and were willing to trust players like Matt Flynn and Geno Smith as relatively unproven starters. It’s hard to imagine Carroll switching his philosophy unless he and new general manager John Spytek are enamored with one of the 2025 NFL draft’s top quarterbacks.
2025 NFL draft QBs
Carroll’s draft history is bad news for the 2025 NFL draft class in general, which is already considered weak at quarterback. Again, Carroll and Spytek could potentially fall in love with a top quarterback but if not, they are more likely to spend their early pick on a difference-maker at another position. Then, they would target a mid-round signal-caller to join in competition with a veteran, like Wilson.
With that in mind, dreams of the Raiders becoming a third, top-10 landing spot for quarterbacks seems unlikely. That will leave fewer landing spots for hopeful first-round quarterback prospects.
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys reportedly reached out to Carroll about their head coaching opening, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Naturally, they didn’t land him, making Carroll yet another high-profile candidate who won’t be joining the Cowboys.
With Carroll, Johnson and Aaron Glenn all unavailable, Dallas’ high-end options to replace Mike McCarthy appear to be dwindling. The team is increasingly focusing on Brian Schottenheimer as its top candidate, but that will do little to inspire Cowboys fans. That will make missing out on Carroll so shortly after interest in him was first reported sting all the more.
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