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Will Pete Carroll become fall-guy for Mark Davis' ineptitude?
Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll. Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Pete Carroll could be latest fall-guy for Mark Davis' ineptitude with Raiders 

By Adam Gretz  |  Last updated Jan 4, 2026 9:17 AM ET

The 2025 season has been a mess for the Las Vegas Raiders. They enter their regular-season finale against the Kansas City Chiefs with the league's worst record, have already fired several assistant coaches and could be on the verge of firing yet another head coach when this mess of a season ends Sunday afternoon.

There is an expectation that Pete Carroll could end up being one-and-done with the Raiders, opening the door for yet another head coach on the silver and black sidelines. 

Will they get this decision right?

If owner Mark Davis dominates the process, history suggests they will not. 

Pete Carroll could be latest fall-guy for Mark Davis' failures as Raiders owner

If you wanted to make the argument that Carroll did a poor job as the Raiders head coach this season, you do not need to do much work. A 2-14 record speaks for itself. Losing 14 out of 15 games down the stretch does as well. It's been a bad year.

But Carroll is not a bad coach. He has an extensive track record of success in the NFL, and was regularly winning nine or 10 games with the Seattle Seahawks every year, including most recently with the very quarterback he has in Las Vegas this season (Geno Smith). 

Did the game pass him by in one season?

Did he suddenly forget how to win and coach in the NFL? 

Maybe. But that all seems unlikely.

The more likely answer here is that one of the NFL's most dysfunctional and consistently losing franchises just has so many problems that no head coach, regardless of their track record or resume, is capable of fixing it. 

This is a franchise that has made the playoffs two times in the past 23 seasons. A franchise that has not won a playoff game since reaching the Super Bowl during the 2003 season. It is a franchise that has had 14 different head coaches (including interim head coaches) during that time, including several one-and-done coaches (Art Shell, Hue Jackson, now potentially Carroll) and several more than did not make it beyond two seasons (Josh McDaniels, Lane Kiffin and Antonio Pierce). 

Maybe all of those coaches were bad coaches. But the common denominator in all of this has been Davis, his ownership and his hiring practices. 

It is true with head coaches. General managers. Assistant coaches. The roster. Everything involved with every level of the franchise. All of them have changed over the past two decades. The only constant has been the owner.

Bad teams stay bad for a reason. It typically starts at the top. 

The presence of Tom Brady as a minority owner might help if he is allowed to have more say in the process. But at the end of the day Davis is still the majority owner and the one signing the checks and making the decisions. His track record does not warrant any benefit of the doubt when it comes to the next coach. Or their potential pick with the No. 1 overall pick should they secure it on Sunday. Or any of their future roster-building. 

There might be some validity to making a head-coaching change prior to taking a quarterback No. 1 overall (as the Raiders would be expected to do next April in the 2026 NFL Draft). There is just little to suggest they will get any of this right when they go through with it all. 

Adam Gretz

Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on Twitter @AGretz

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