The Las Vegas Raiders wrapped up one search this week, according to team and league sources, when they agreed to terms with Tampa Bay Buccaneers assistant general manager John Spytek to become their next general manager. But they’re still looking for a head coach.
Two candidates they interviewed—Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn—have accepted head-coaching jobs with the Chicago Bears and New York Jets, respectively. After missing out on Johnson, the Raiders shifted their focus to filling their GM vacancy.
With Spytek in place and set to join the hiring committee of owner Mark Davis and minority owners Tom Brady, Tom Wagner, Michael Meldman and Egon Durban, the Raiders are now turning their attention back to finding a head coach.
The Raiders have interviewed five other candidates for their head-coaching opening: former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll (in person), former Jets head coach Robert Saleh (in person), former Carolina Panthers and Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera (in person), Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph (virtually) and Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo (virtually). They’ve also requested an interview with Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken, who overlapped with Spytek when he was Tampa Bay’s OC from 2016 to 2018.
Naturally, Spytek will influence the coaching decision, and it remains possible that the Raiders could add more names to their list of candidates. Former Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, Commanders OC Kliff Kingsbury, Buffalo Bills OC Joe Brady, Miami Dolphins DC Anthony Weaver, Minnesota Vikings DC Brian Flores, Philadelphia Eagles OC Kellen Moore, Bucs OC Liam Coen and former Raiders DC Patrick Graham are possibilities who’ve landed interviews elsewhere.
For now, though, Carroll is believed to be the front-runner, according to team and league sources. Spytek doesn’t have any ties to Carroll, but it’s worth noting that Jed Hughes of management consulting firm Korn Ferry, who the Raiders contracted to assist with their GM and head coach searches, helped place Carroll with the Seahawks in 2010. Carroll will turn 74 next season and would be the oldest head coach in NFL history, but he brings a strong resume to the table including a Super Bowl win, a national championship from his days at USC and a lot of wins along the way.
Michael-Shawn Dugar of The Athletic covered Carroll for seven seasons in Seattle. He answered a few questions to give us a sense of what Carroll could bring to the table for the Raiders.
How did Carroll find success so quickly in Seattle?
The Seahawks hired Carroll in 2010, and he immediately led them to the playoffs in Year 1. Just four seasons into his tenure, they crushed the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.
Carroll came to Seattle having refined his coaching philosophy after two unsuccessful NFL stints with the New England Patriots and Jets. By the time the Seahawks hired him, Carroll knew who he was as a coach and how to build a team in his image. Hyper-competitive practices, pranks during team meetings, basketball shootouts in the auditorium, music blaring at practice and an overall player-friendly environment were among the ways he established a culture in Seattle.
Hitting big in the first three drafts helped, of course. But the first step for Carroll (and Seahawks GM John Schneider) was laying a foundation. It helped that he brought a bunch of coaches with him from USC to assist in setting a standard. That helped maximize the talent they acquired, which led to early success.
When it came to roster moves, how did Carroll and Schneider collaborate?
Schneider was hired alongside Carroll in 2010. The duo helped the Seahawks make the playoffs 10 times in 14 seasons.
Schneider was the GM, but Carroll was vice president of football operations and had final say on personnel. Schneider and his guys in the front office ran the show, though, regarding scouting, free-agent negotiations, draft picks, trades and the like. Contractually, Carroll had veto power, which Schneider says the coach “rarely” used in their 14 seasons together.
They shared a lot of traits that made them a successful duo, but three things stand out to me: They believed in always being in “win now” mode, they liked playing young guys and they weren’t afraid to acquire players with checkered pasts. Having a shared vision in those areas helped build consistently competitive rosters.
What led to the rift between Carroll and quarterback Russell Wilson?
The Seahawks drafted Wilson in 2012. The quarterback spent a decade with the franchise before he was traded to the Broncos in 2022.
Carroll wrote a book titled, “Win Forever,” and Wilson named his first biological son “Win,” which shows how similar their priorities were. The short version of the beef is that they disagreed on how to go about achieving their goal. Carroll believes in making life as easy as possible on the quarterback, and with Wilson as the starter, that meant a run-first offense backed by a dominant defense and a strong special teams unit. Wilson essentially outgrew that risk-averse style of play and stopped using his legs in the designed run game, which birthed the “Let Russ Cook” movement.
They tried Wilson’s way in 2020, but Carroll pulled the plug midway through the year and fired offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, citing philosophical differences. At that point, the relationship between Carroll and Wilson was damaged beyond repair. The quarterback was traded a year later, though Wilson also tried to get Carroll fired. Wilson flew to Seattle for Carroll’s impromptu going-away party last year so it’s not all bad between them, but the ending was very messy.
"Coach Carroll is an amazing football coach & an amazing individual..
We've always stayed in touch & I went and saw him with a lot of the other guys when he got let go by Seattle..
If Sherm & I can be in the same room it's always a good thing" 😂😂 ~ @DangeRussWilson #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/zXzIxsY98n
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 22, 2025
Why did things go wrong for Carroll toward the end of his run with the Seahawks?
Carroll was fired following a 9-8 season in 2023. He finished with a 137-89 record as head coach of the Seahawks. He hasn’t coached since, but the team hired him as an advisor in 2024.
The style of ball Carroll preached about deploying Monday through Saturday was no longer translating to the field on Sundays. The Seahawks weren’t running the ball well — or very often — and the defense wasn’t dominant (though the special teams were mostly fine). In the glory days, anything short of championship contention was viewed as a massive disappointment, and the tone in the locker room reflected that. After Seattle’s season finale in 2023, half of the locker room smoked cigars to commemorate finishing the year, even though they didn’t make the playoffs. The Seahawks were no longer crafted in Carroll’s image.
The Seahawks also suffered a serious talent drain in the post-Legion of Boom era, and Carroll’s last couple of coordinator hires didn’t pan out. Those things mattered, but they tied back to why the team no longer looked the way Carroll wanted it to. His vision for winning games wasn’t antiquated, but in the end, he simply wasn’t bringing it to life.
Does Carroll still have it?
I don’t doubt Carroll is still a high-floor coach — he never won fewer than seven games in Seattle — who can establish a culture. Like all CEO-style head coaches, though, he would need to nail his coordinator hires. His last two hires felt reactionary; he plucked Shane Waldron away from Sean McVay and hired Clint Hurtt to run a Vic Fangio-style defense.
When the Seahawks were at their best, it felt like they were setting the tone schematically, not chasing after the flavor of the month. If he’s going to win in Las Vegas, he’d likely need to have a more proactive approach.
