New Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll compared their secondary’s athleticism, speed and size to the legendary Legion of Boom group he coached in his time with the Seattle Seahawks.

Mike Dixon of Vegas Sports Today posted a clip from the Raiders press conference on Tuesday at 12:07pm.

If anyone knows the LOB, it’s Pete. He and John Schneider were responsible for assembling and coaching one of the greatest secondaries of all time, which featured Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, Brandon Browner as the starters, and future starters Jeremy Lane, Byron Maxwell and DeShawn Shead as backups. While his comments m might ruffle the feathers of some Seahawks fans, he acknowledges the absurdity of his own comment in the same breath. Instead of shrugging this off as a stretch, let’s try and look deeper into what message he’s actually trying to say:

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A quick look at the Raiders’ Depth Chart shows their starters projected as Darien Porter, Jeremy Chinn, Isaiah Pola-Mao, and Eric Stokes, with Darnay Holmes as the starting nickelback. For the purposes of comparing 2025’s coverage environment to 2013’s, one would probably want to include nickel as the “starting five” DBs as that position has become a true fixture since, to see where the similarities in these two units reside. However, the biggest similarities fall directly between the alpha cornerbacks on each team in Porter and Sherman.

Las Vegas drafted Porter in the 3rd round with the 4th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft so comparing him to Sherman at this point is lofty to say the least. Their frames are extremely similar, with Porter a tad taller coming out of college at 6’2 7/8″ to Sherm’s 6’2 5/8″ and both weighing exactly 195 lbs. Sherman’s 9.75-9 inch hand advantage is canceled out by Porter’s 33.13-32 inch arm size advantage. However, Porter had the speed and quickness to get an all-time 9.99 Relative Athletic Score (4th out of 2500 cornerbacks since 1987), whereas Sherman was slept on for his poor 40yd dash and shuttle (7.54 RAS)- but Sherm also had one of a kind intangibles that don’t factor into RAS. They also both began college as WRs and made the switch to defense in their fourth year before blooming as fifth- and sixth-year seniors, respectively.

The main trait that made Sherman and the LOB succeed wasn’t athleticism based at all. To play so physical to the point their opponents gave them a nickname inspired by comic book villains, they had to access more than just their physical ‘it’ factors themselves. Not only did Earl Thomas’ centerfield-like patrol of the deep middle and Kam Chancellor’s business-decision inspiring hits free up Sherm to get as aggressive as he wanted and bail when need be in simple zone coverage, but the overall confidence they instilled in each other was contagious. Their chemistry acted as a multiplier to the team’s success.

While the Raiders are certainly reshaping themselves in Coach Carroll’s image, skeptics still question whether they can replicate the most dominant parts of his culture in Seattle. Porter’s play- and potentially leadership- could be one of the biggest storylines to watch following Carroll’s eyebrow-raising comments this week.

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This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Raiders HC Pete Carroll compares his Vegas’ secondary to Seahawks LOB