Having faith in oneself certainly can go a long way to success. It can also lead to destruction. One thing that former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll has seemingly always had is the belief that his approach to football is one of the best ways. It isn’t anymore.
It stopped before Seattle relieved Carroll of his coaching duties after the 2023 season. He should have made changes to his coaching staff and defensive philosophy well before he was, for all intents and purposes, fired by the Seahawks. He didn’t.
This past offseason, Carroll was hired to be the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Vegas had enough faith in Carroll that the team brought in a bunch of former Seattle players. That included quarterback Geno Smith, who has been so uninspiring this season that he raised his middle finger to his own fans at a recent game.
Former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll might be reaching the end of his career
Smith might be one-and-done with the Raiders, even though they signed him to an extension after trading for the quarterback. Las Vegas probably already needs another rebuild, and that probably means no Smith. According to NFL insider Ian Rapoport, it might also mean no Carroll.
It already meant no more Chip Kelly, who was the Raiders’ offensive coordinator until he was recently fired. Some have mentioned that Carroll was meddling too much in Kelly’s scheme, even though the head coach is more defensive-minded. In other words, Carroll seemingly doomed Kelly.
Rapoport said on a recent episode of NFL GameDay Morning, “(When you) talk to people who know this offense very well…They do not believe that it was Chip Kelly’s offense. They believe it was Pete Carroll’s offense. Sounds to me like if Chip had to do this again, (he) would not have taken this job. So what does this all mean?…Certainly puts Pete Carroll on the hot seat in what has been a difficult, difficult season in Las Vegas.”
Do most Seattle Seahawks fans care if the Las Vegas Raiders fail? Probably not. 12s also probably don’t mind if Geno Smith fails, either. He wasn’t happy with Seattle, proven by his unwillingness to communicate with the team about potential contract extension talks before he was dealt to Vegas. He also made a vulgar gesture to some Seahawks fans when Vegas played Seattle in the preseason.
But many Seattle fans likely do care about Pete Carroll. He needed to be shown the door, but not because he was a bad person. He had simply become a coach too structured in his own ways. That appears to have rolled over the Raiders, too. Las Vegas has five games left in the season, and they could be the last five games in Pete Carroll’s head coaching career.