The Las Vegas Raiders open up the preseason against Pete Carroll’s old team, and head coach Carroll says he’s planning on playing his starters.
“Everybody’s alive,” Carroll said during a press conference on Tuesday. “Everyone’s ready to go.”
How Long Will the Raiders’ Starters Play?
Carroll didn’t say how long his starters would play, but that means everyone from quarterback Geno Smith to tight end Brock Bowers to running back Ashton Jeanty to defensive end Maxx Crosby will likely see the field against the Seattle Seahawks.
#Raiders HC Pete Carroll said he plans to play the starters against the Seahawks on Thursday
— Tashan Reed (@tashanreed) August 5, 2025
Carroll’s old-school style lends to this, and the conventional wisdom is that starters will only see the field for a couple of series before departing. The Raiders have significant position battles along the trenches, at cornerback, safety, and backup running back that must be worked out.
Rookie Jackson Powers-Johnson and veteran Jordan Meredith have been rotating snaps at center with the first team, with Meredith earning more snaps as time passes.
Jeanty is the clear-cut feature back, but Raheem Mostert, Zamir White, and Chris Collier are listed on the second team, and Sincere McCormick and Dylan Laube are on the third.
The defensive line also fills the void created by Christian Wilkins’s release. The Raiders traded cornerback Jakorian Bennett to the Philadelphia Eagles for Thomas Booker IV for more depth behind second-year defensive tackle Jonah Laulu.
Trading Bennett has clarified the cornerback position, with Darnay Holmes, Darien Porter, and Decamerion Richardson looking to lock in their spots.
The Raiders also signed veteran safety, and former Carroll protégé, Jamal Adams to a free agent contract. It’ll be interesting to see if he can carve out a role.
Back in the land before time — when there were 14 or 16 regular season games — NFL teams used to showcase starters in the first two or three series and increase their usage until starters played nearly an entire half by the end of the preseason. Times were different.
But as the regular season expanded to 17 games, teams began cutting back on their starters’ usage in the preseason. When Sean McVay took over the Rams in 2016, he severely curtailed the use of starters in the preseason, and many teams followed suit.
Carroll and Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid are some holdovers from the old days, though they won’t even play their starters deep into games that don’t count.
The Raiders and Seahawks will face off Thursday night at Lumen Field in Seattle at 4 p.m. EST.
