Pete Carroll fired by Raiders after disastrous 3-14 run in 2025

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Pete Carroll got fired by the Seattle Seahawks when he was 72 years old, but he wanted to keep coaching. 

His next NFL stop turned out to be an absolute mess. And it didn't last long. 

Carroll was fired by the Las Vegas Raiders after the team went 3-14 in his first season, the team announced.

The team signed him to a three-year contract to become the team's head coach in January 2025. Now, they'll move forward with a new leader, having clinched the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, entering a new era.

Carroll was brought in to improve the culture and the competitiveness of a Raiders franchise that has been among the NFL's worst for decades. It was an odd choice, with a team nowhere near contention hiring the oldest head coach in NFL history. But Carroll, who had a long track record of success with the Seahawks, and at USC before that, seemed like he should be an upgrade over what the Raiders have had lately. 

He wasn't, and the Raiders decided it wasn't worth trying again for a second season with him. 

Pete Carroll doesn't work out with Raiders

Carroll came to the Seahawks with a modest NFL resume from the 1990s. He had a mostly unsuccessful stint with the Jets and one season with the Patriots, which ended in a losing season. It looked like maybe he was just a good college coach when he followed that up with a tremendous run at USC. But in Seattle, he was a smashing success, 137-89-1 and leading the team to its first-ever Super Bowl championship. 

His firing after the 2023 season by the Seahawks was surprising, but the Seahawks wanted to go in a different direction, and nobody questioned Carroll's ability as an NFL coach. After the Raiders lost out on their publicized chase of Ben Johnson to replace Antonio Pierce as their head coach last offseason, they settled on Carroll. Not much went right. 

The Raiders made three other huge moves to try to improve right away. They hired Chip Kelly as the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL. They traded for Carroll's old quarterback in Seattle, 35-year-old Geno Smith. And they drafted a running back, Ashton Jeanty, with the sixth overall pick. All of those moves were win-now moves. Kelly was fired in midseason, Smith fell apart and was booed often by the home fans, and Jeanty had a disappointing and unproductive rookie season. 

The losses piled up. After a season-opening win at the Patriots, the Raiders won only one of their next 15 games, and that was against a lowly Titans team at home. The losses became less competitive, like a 31-0 loss at the Eagles in Week 15. They did beat the Chiefs in Week 18, which was a nice sendoff but far from enough to save Carroll's job. 

As losses piled up, it started to become clear that Carroll was likely to be replaced after just one season. The question became whether he would make it to the end of his first season. 

Who will Raiders hire? 

The Raiders' opening will be a tough sell, like it was when Johnson decided to go to the Chicago Bears instead of Las Vegas. Perhaps the No. 1 overall pick and the ability to start fresh with a new quarterback like Indiana's Fernando Mendoza will be a draw. 

Brock Bowers and Maxx Crosby are unquestioned stars, and Jeanty was a top-end prospect, but the Raiders lack young talent other than them. Crosby's future with the team is also in doubt after a disagreement over putting him on injured reserve for the final two games of the season. It's a franchise that used to have championship glory but has been synonymous with losing for a long time. The Raiders haven't won a playoff game since the 2002 AFC championship game. It's a dysfunctional franchise that lacks a clear plan, as we saw by their moves this past offseason. 

The Raiders have had 14 different head coaches, counting interims, over the last 24 seasons. That speaks to their constant losing and also the lack of leadership from ownership on down. They'll be hoping the 15th coach in 25 seasons does better, but it's a long-term project. 

It was also a long-term project when they hired Carroll. It was a weird fit from the beginning. And it worked out even worse than anyone could have expected.