As the season progresses, it seems more and more likely that head coach Pete Carroll will be one-and-done with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Hired during the offseason, Carroll was expected to change the culture in Las Vegas and bring a winning mentality to the franchise, much like he did with the Seattle Seahawks.
Instead, the Raiders look even worse than they were last season and there is no end in sight to the ineptitude this franchise has experienced.
Despite trading for what was supposed to be an upgrade at quarterback in Geno Smith, the offense has been awful, and that has not changed since offensive coordinator Chip Kelly was fired.
The Raiders haven't been much better on defense, although at least that side of the ball has shown some semblance of a pulse.
As Carroll's seat continues to get hotter, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio is hearing from league sources that the team might already have an exit strategy with the embattled head coach.
Florio says the Raiders might be trying to set up a scenario where they don't have to fire Carroll and can get out of paying him the remainder of his contract.
"Current speculation, per a league source, centers on some sort of a negotiated resolution, pursuant to which Carroll ‘retires’ and gets a portion of what he’s owed," Florio wrote.
No matter what the Raiders say officially, if Carroll isn't back in 2026, we'll all know why. That would be a firing, plain and simple, as Carroll obviously never planned on only spending one season in Las Vegas.
Carroll was always the wrong man for this job, and that falls on the shoulders of minority owner Tom Brady and general manager John Spytek.
The issue is the Raiders should have blown it up and went into a full rebuild instead of hiring a 74-year-old head coach who would have no interest in doing that.
But once Carroll was hired, he did zero to elevate this team, which is where Brady's and Spytek's blame stops and Carroll's begins.
In fact, Carroll has actually set the team back because of his reluctance to give the Raiders' younger players more opportunities.
As a result of everything we've seen this season, there is zero justification for keeping Carroll as the head coach in 2026.
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