Tonight’s game between the Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders looks like a mismatch on paper, but there’s a coaching rivalry in this one that comes with a different history.
That would be Sean Payton vs. Pete Carroll. The two do have a history, and there are some common threads as well. Each has won a Super Bowl last decade, with Payton leading the New Orleans Saints to victory in 2010, while Carroll got his four years later with the Seattle Seahawks.
The win totals are similar as well. Payton has 177 wins in 18 regular seasons, wile Carroll has 172 in 19, according to Steven Louis Goldstein of The Athletic.
Payton owns this one during the regular season with a 4-1 record, and he seems certain to add to that tonight. Carroll, meanwhile, has postseason bragging rights at 2-0, but it seems safe to say that the Raiders won’t be playing a lot of January football next year.
These two teams are going in very different directions. The Broncos come in riding a six-game winning streak, which is their longest since 2015, when they won Super Bowl 50. The Raiders, meanwhile, have already had a four-game losing streak, and dropping this one would give them another three-gamer.
The status of the two coaches is also very different. Many of Payton’s moves were questioned when he first signed on with the Broncos after an extended media stint, but he’s riding high as the guy who overdrafted quarterback Bo Nix, then turned him into a growing gunslinger.
Carroll was hoping for an analogous return to the coaching ranks, but it hasn’t happened. He was hired to restore a winning culture to the Raiders’ tradition, and the team trade for quarterback Geno Smith to help get him there. Both moves have been disastrous, as was the drafting of running back Ashton Jeanty, who’s had his moments but has underperformed given his draft status.
The big mismatch Payton will try to capitalize on is his defense against the Raiders offense. Smith has been an interception machine this year, and he has a battered offensive line that will likely keep him under pressure throughout the game against Denver’s fierce pass rush.
Whatever chances Carroll has to keep the Raiders hanging around seems certain to be based on the return of a healthy Brock Bowers, as the tight end returned to form last week in the team’s one-point OT loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Payton simply doesn’t want a hiccup if this one turns into a close trap game, especially with the Kansas City Chiefs coming to town after Denver’s mini-bye.