Carroll's the Coach for the Raiders

The franchise names its new head coach, and I'm very much a fan of the decision

The Oakland Las Vegas Raiders brought their latest head coaching search to an end as they announced that former Seattle Seahawks and USC head coach Pete Carroll would be the franchise’s next head coach. It was also announced that John Spytek would the team’s new general manager.

After former Lions OC Ben Johnson, who was the Raiders’ first target, took the Chicago Bears head job (getting to coach QB Caleb Williams), Pete Carroll emerged as a front-runner and likely choice for the head position.

At first, I was frustrated by this direction. Like so many, I was enamored with the idea of the genius whiz offensive mind as the head coach. I mean, I remember Jon Gruden’s first tenure as Raiders head coach. I’ve seen what’s happened in San Francisco with Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay in Los Angeles.

But while I certainly think Johnson could be a great head coach, I also think it’s a little easy to get enamored with that plan while not seeing the potential downsides. I think about someone like Norv Turner. Turner was the offensive coordinator on the 1992 and 1993 Super Bowl-winning Dallas Cowboys teams. He was one of the brightest minds in the game, but his tenures as a head coach were always underwhelming at best.

Conversely, a coach who’s been a (successful) head coach before and is a little more seasoned does not necessarily have to be a negative, which is exactly what the Raiders are getting with Pete Carroll.

I think about a couple of tweets I saw referencing Carroll and his introductory press conference that highlight this line of thinking:

For a franchise that has felt so rudderless, unfocused, and lacking in energy, perhaps a steady yet powerful hand like Carroll is exactly what’s needed. He had those qualities on display throughout that introductory press conference, which made it clear why owner Mark Davis elected to tab him for the head coaching position.

I’ve spent a lot of my fandom rooting against Carroll’s teams, namely his USC Trojans (who, I must remind everyone, were defeated in the 2006 Rose Bowl by Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns). In fact, I’ve been a big fan of Carroll’s chief rival in coaching, Jim Harbaugh (who’s now coaching the Los Angeles Chargers). I’d wanted the Raiders to go after Harbaugh rather than just giving the job to Antonio Pierce, but that wasn’t meant to be. But I think Carroll will be able to do and be most (if not all) of what made Harbaugh such an appealing candidate. Carroll can do the things to make a team win. He brings with him an air of professionalism, enthusiasm, and accountability. He can turn things around and when they’ve been turned around he can keep them going in the right direction.

Another thing I’d seen thrown out there on Twitter is that this is really the first time (maybe ever) that the Raiders have had a high profile figure say yes to the job. By and large, the Raiders have brought in coordinators (Dennis Allen, Josh McDaniels, Tom Cable, Lane Kiffin) or the occasional veteran (Jack Del Rio, Turner). Gruden was probably the closest thing, since he had one a Super Bowl and was high profile, but that was quite different given that Gruden’s first head coaching job was with the Raiders and he had those ties to the organization.

But the Raiders never could bring in that marquee, big name head coach. Carroll was just that kind of coach, someone who could pick and wait for the job he wanted. And yet he chose the Raiders. While I think the team has a long ways to go to be a competitive team, the fact that Carroll did take this position says something about the Raiders standing within the league. How much of that has to do with, say, Tom Brady’s involvement in this process and ownership? How much do those new facilities in Las Vegas factor in as opposed to the grittier feel of Oakland? I don’t know.

There are certainly questions that still remain—who will fill out his staff? What are the Raiders going to do at quarterback? How will they compete in maybe the toughest division in the NFL? But the first big question of the offseason was “who would be the Raiders head coach going forward?” Though I don’t think Pete Carroll would’ve been my initial choice, I’ve realized maybe it should’ve been and that things worked out pretty well. While I wasn’t feeling too enthusiastic about the Raiders heading into the offseason, now I’m feeling a little more hope.