The Las Vegas Raiders have officially let head coach Pete Carroll go after just one season as the team finished just 3-14 and secured the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 National Football League Draft.
Locking up the first selection in the draft is really the only good thing to happen for Las Vegas this year, and there should be a lot of excitement in the coming months regarding the coaching search and who the Raiders will take first-overall.
Coach Carroll had high expectations for the Raiders coming into the season due to his extensive winning background.
“Carroll said the Raiders would win "a bunch of games" in his first season. Instead, he led Las Vegas to a 3-14 record -- his worst as a coach -- and the team fired him on Monday morning with the 74-year-old 17 games into his three-year deal,” ESPN’s Ryan McFadden wrote Monday.
“Carroll strongly believed that his history of winning (nine seasons with at least 10 wins and a Super Bowl XLVIII victory) would be enough to put the Raiders on the right track. He was ‘blindly optimistic’ about the talent on the roster and was reminded throughout a brutal season that the Raiders were further away from being competitive than he had hoped.”
While the season was an absolute disaster, Las Vegas has some nice pieces that can and should be built around. However, a rebuild is expected, and that could mean star edge rusher Maxx Crosby will be on the move.
“Moving forward, the Raiders will most likely embrace a rebuild,” McFadden added. “That doesn't necessarily mean it will be a long process. Las Vegas already has a couple of talented young players in Jeanty and tight end Brock Bowers. The Raiders are projected to have 10 draft picks, including the first pick, and the second-most cap space in the league.”
Tom Brady was involved in the last head coach search and attempted to land current Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson and quarterback Matthew Stafford, but ultimately couldn’t land them according to ESPN’s Dan Graziano.
Graziano believes Brady will have a large role in this decision again and outlined who could potentially be on his and general manager John Spytek’s radar.
“A lot of the speculation has included coaches with Michigan ties (Jesse Minter?), Patriots ties (Brian Flores?) or candidates the Raiders have explored in the past and are available again (Vance Joseph? Robert Saleh?),” Graziano wrote Monday. “The job will be more desirable to candidates who know Brady a bit and are OK with his level of influence on organizational decision-making. And the Raiders will need a concrete plan at quarterback to make it a desirable job. Having the No. 1 pick in the draft could help if the prospective coach is enamored with one of the top prospects under center.”
A disappointing season is leading to an exciting offseason for Raiders fans.