Pete Carroll may have finally met his match with the Las Vegas Raiders. He’s been one of the most successful coaches around over the last 20 years, and when the Raiders hired him, the hope was that he could finally turn around a franchise that hasn’t won a playoff game since 2002.
The early signs aren’t good. The Raiders are 1-4 and just got blown out 40-6 by the Indianapolis Colts. The team isn’t doing anything well right now. The passing game, running game, defense and special teams are all a mess right now.
Notably, Carroll has a defensive background, so the fact that the defense is playing so poorly is a red flag. He also wants to run the ball, but the Raiders have only had one good game on the ground this season. One NFL executive has not been impressed with Carroll’s Raiders and called him out for how the team is playing.
What I think is so interesting is the two guys that want to run the defensive programs and get the veteran quarterbacks to run the ball and play defense can’t run the ball and can’t play defense,” an NFL executive said of the Raiders and New York Jets, per The Athletic’s Mike Sando.
Does Carroll Just Need Time?
In Carroll’s defense, he’s just five games into his tenure with a team that hasn’t had any success in two decades, no matter who the coach was. Sando pointed out that when Carroll took over USC and the Seattle Seahawks in the past, it took time to build winners.
“Carroll is a proven elite program builder, but it took three seasons and a couple of historically great draft classes — Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor in one, Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner in another — for him to post a winning record in Seattle,” Sando wrote. “It was a full organizational mindset adjustment. It took time.”
The Raiders have already lost twice by at least 17 points,” Sando added. “Carroll’s first Seattle team went 7-9, with all nine losses by at least 11 points. How patient will ownership be if Carroll needs a couple of seasons to win, and the team loses more games like the one it lost Sunday?”
The Raiders are coming off one of the worst seasons in team history under Antonio Pierce, so it’s not like he took over a good team. It’s entirely possible that he just needs time to build.
Raiders Need to Get Healthy
It doesn’t help the Raiders that they’re really banged up right now. In addition to playing their first game of the season without starting left tackle Kolton Miller, tight ends Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer were out, and starting cornerback Eric Stokes also missed the game.
Carroll was hoping to see more out of the backups, but they just couldn’t step up.
“If Brock could have played, he would have. If Stokes could have played, he would have,” Carroll said after Sunday’s loss. “We thought that resting them would make a difference, and we didn’t get as much out of that as we hoped.”
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Pete Carroll Called out by NFL Exec Over Raiders Start appeared first on Heavy Sports.