Following a poor 2025 season, the Las Vegas Raiders have fired Pete Carroll after just one season, a move that was far from unexpected by members of the media.
Carroll’s firing comes after the Raiders finished at the bottom of the NFL standings with a 3-14 record, securing the first overall pick in the upcoming NFL Draft. Plenty of things went wrong for Carroll’s Raiders; however, one NFL insider is reporting that Carroll’s tenure as head coach may have been doomed from the start.
The Raiders Defied Pete Carroll Right From the Start
Pete Carroll and the Raiders were rarely on the same page throughout the disastrous 2025 season, and that lack of cohesion began before the team’s first game of the season.
The #Raiders’ idea with Pete Carroll was to establish a winning culture. But the way it was set up — including the organization hiring Chip Kelly as OC when Pete had other candidates in mind — made it a complicated situation from the start, per sources. https://t.co/CKZE9Obd9j
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) January 5, 2026
Following Carroll’s firing, NFL insider Jordan Schultz reported that the complicated season began way back when the Raiders hired Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator while immediately making him the league’s highest-paid coordinator.
Schultz reported that Carroll was not totally sold on Kelly as his OC, claiming the hiring came while Carroll had other candidates in mind. Carroll was thrust into a complicated situation from the jump. Was one of the most established head coaches in football history ever given the chance to develop a winning culture for a franchise that has been through years of despair?
Kelly’s tenure as OC was brief, lasting just 11 games, during which the Raiders won only two games; however, the offense didn’t necessarily improve after his departure, highlighting the number of issues with the 2025 Raiders as a whole.
According to PFSN’s OFFi metrics, the Raiders accumulated a score of 56.3 (F), making their offense the second-worst in the NFL, only ahead of the Cleveland Browns.
The rather quick decision to fire Kelly further proves how out of sorts the Raiders’ staff was. The lack of cohesion among longtime, proven football coaches set the stage for a disastrous season in Vegas. Now, legendary quarterback and minority owner Tom Brady, along with others in the front office, will help fill the vacant positions, starting from scratch for the second consecutive season.
Only time will tell whether Carroll and Kelly will find positions in the NFL again, but following their disastrous season together, it is safe to say that it is quite unlikely they will end up on the same staff again.
