The Las Vegas Raiders announced on Jan. 5 that they are parting ways with head coach Pete Carroll after just one season. A 3-14 finish proved insufficient to earn the veteran coach another year.
With Carroll gone, the Raiders are set to search for a new head coach capable of assembling a staff that can support Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who is expected to go No. 1 in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Although Carroll is getting a good portion of the blame for this disastrous season, NBC Sports NFL insider Mike Florio didn’t hold back in questioning why minority owner Tom Brady isn’t receiving more blame for his decision-making.
“He was brought in to stabilize the organization,” Florio said on “PFT PM.” “Owner Mark Davis said so himself. Brady got a slice of the team at a below-market rate, in part because Davis is buying Tom’s expertise. Remember, last year, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that this is Tom’s show now. That was a year ago.
“If it was really a show, it would be cancelled. It was a mess. Brady somehow has avoided the blame for it. Not many. I know I’m one of them. We have to call it like we see it. This is partially Brady’s fault. He’s the one who’s pressing buttons, and he’s the one who’s choosing not to go all in. I’ve said for weeks now, Brady’s got to go all in or all out. You can’t do this job halfway. We’ll see how much time he spends on it going forward.”
As the Raiders begin their search for a new head coach, Rich Gannon had a blunt take for his former team.
“I just think there’s a lot that goes into that process of interviewing,” Rich Gannon said on Jan. 5 during an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “Tom doesn’t have a lot of experience doing it. There are people who sit in those chairs, and they conduct a lot of interviews. They’ve been doing it for a long time.
“John Spytek is going to have to be very involved in the process, along with Tom Brady, apparently. It sounds like Mark Davis doesn’t really want to be involved in that process. He wants to let these two guys make that decision, which is fine, but they’ve got to get it right.”
While many might see it as unfair to fire a head coach after one season, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith believes Carroll didn’t help himself and that the former Raiders coach showed his age this season.
“It absolutely was the right decision,” Smith said on the Jan. 5 edition of “First Take.” “I don’t give a damn about it. No disrespect to the GM, but I don’t give a damn. I want Tom Brady to make that call, because we all know it’s going to be a quarterback getting the No. 1 overall pick.
“There’s one man that should make this call, and that’s a seven-time champion, and it’s Tom Brady. Pete Carroll, God bless him. Father Time is undefeated. We say it about players all the time. Sometimes we have to say it about coaches. He looked old. He just looked a bit outdated. It comes a point in time when you’re looking at certain people.”
