Pete Carroll ‘surprised’ by slow start to Raiders season

When Pete Carroll took the head coaching mantle of the Las Vegas Raiders in February, many thought it was the beginning of better days for the downtrodden legacy franchise.

Unfortunately, seven weeks into the 2025 season, and the Raiders are faring no better than in years past. Carroll has preached competitiveness throughout the lineup, but there have been multiple games this season where the Raiders just collapsed. The Geno Smith trade has been a dud so far, multiple positions look disjointed and morale is at a season-low point after being shut out by the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.

With the bye week coming at a much-needed time, Carroll had plenty to explain about the state of his team.

Carroll is doing his part to push the Raiders to a better second half of the year.

During his press conference on Monday, Carroll tried to figure out what was going wrong with the Raiders as they entered the bye at a 2-5 record.

“I’m surprised that we’re not farther along than we are. I thought we would be, and I anticipated being farther along and being cleaner with our game. What I’m trying to show you is that we can play really balanced football, meaning that all three phases can do their part and give us a chance to play the game where we’re not giving the game away,” Carroll said.

Carroll also talked about how Smith could stand to improve, while also discussing the evolution of the Raiders’ young pass catchers.

Another major point of discussion was injuries. The Raiders walked into Kansas City shorthanded, with Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers missing the game and Maxx Crosby not playing in the second half. Fortunately, the bye week should give all three players some time to recover and prepare for next week.

“The first thing is it gives us a chance to have two weeks to get three or four guys back out there, get some starters back out there. It should help. Brock [Bowers] should be ready to go, Jakobi [Meyers] I think he worked out in pregame, was close, he should be ready to go. Gives us a chance to get Maxx. Maxx was not full speed yesterday. He tried, did everything he could, and we had to get him out of there, but he’ll be better. So, that’s a real boost,” said Carroll.

Carroll will be hoping for a clean bill of health during the bye week, then pushing to build a much better on-field product than what has been shown over the past couple months.