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The Las Vegas Raiders are heading toward another tough season at 2-5, and after their disastrous Week 7 loss, questions about the decision to hire Pete Carroll as their head coach are now emerging. When the Silver and Black decided to hire Caroll, it was a short-term decision considering the coach’s age. However, with the Geno Smith move looking increasingly like an unsuccessful decision, should Las Vegas return to the drawing board and make a long-term decision at the head coach position? Amid a 2025 season that sees the Raiders heading toward a last-place finish, Yahoo! Sports’ Jason Fitz believes that the former Seattle Seahawks coach should consider stepping down, especially if Las Vegas finds itself in a situation that needs a long-term rebuild. “Pete Carroll needs to step down as the coach of the Raiders,” Fitz said. “Maybe not today, maybe not until the end of the season, but it’s now abundantly clear that Pete Carroll is not going to be the answer for what ails this franchise long term.” Why Should the Raiders Part Ways With Pete Carroll? Through seven games this season for Las Vegas, it’s clear that the Raiders’ situation isn’t a quick fix. After choosing to go with veteran quarterback Smith, that move has fallen flat. If the franchise drafts a quarterback in the first round next offseason, it must decide whether Carroll fits the team’s long-term plans. “I’m not overreactionary or a shock jock, and my expectations coming into this season were that the Raiders would be a seven-win team,” Fitz added. “I didn’t come in calling for the playoffs. When I say this, it’s not because wild expectations weren’t being met; it’s because the timeline no longer matches the coach’s timeline. “It’s simple: when you have a coach who admitted at the podium this week that they’re further behind seven games in than he expected, the question becomes, what does the real rebuild look like? It’s obviously not Gino with Chip Kelly.” Did the Raiders Make the Wrong Choice in Pete Carroll? At 74, Carroll is a coach who was brought in to win now, but looking at the Raiders roster and their lack of a franchise quarterback, that will not happen. Las Vegas need to begin a youth movement, especially at quarterback, which will take multiple seasons and wouldn’t fit the Carroll timeline. As a result, Fitz notes that maybe hiring a coach in his mid-70s wasn’t a smart move by the Raiders. “It’s clearly absolutely a fundamental Raiders problem,” Fitz said. “I don’t shy away from that at all. Like frankly, Josh McDaniels, Antonio Pierce, and Pete Carroll over the last few years. The answer isn’t any of them should have been kept or should have gotten more time. The answer is none of them should have been hired in the first place. “As I say all the time to fans of teams that suck, what do you do when the person ultimately in charge of hiring is bad at identifying talent? That’s what Mark Davis has been for the majority of his time as the owner of the Raiders. He deserves a ton of the blame at his feet, but you can’t do anything about that.”
