On Saturday, the Las Vegas Raiders hired Pete Carroll.
Carroll’s the latest star head coach in an AFC West division that is now jam-packed with coaching talent.
It’s the first-ever division to feature four head coaches who have each won a Super Bowl.
Raiders hire Pete Carroll, loading the AFC West up with another star head coach
The AFC West was probably already the best-coached division going into this weekend. But it just got more star power with the Raiders hire of Pete Carroll.
Carroll brings 18 years of head coaching experience to a Las Vegas franchise which has been down in the dumps.
The Raiders were among the worst teams in the NFL last year, and have been floundering in terms of coaching for multiple years. Rewind to 2021 and Jon Gruden was head coach, only to be fired mid-season. Then Rich Bisaccia, the interim head coach, was fired and Josh McDaniels was brought in starting in 2022.
McDaniels was fired in the middle of 2023, making way for Antonio Pierce to become interim coach. Pierce was then promoted to full-time head coach this year.
Now, Pierce is gone and Carroll is in as the fifth coach in as many years in Las Vegas.
The Raiders are likely hopeful that Carroll can bring some stability to the position.
He has been the head coach of three different teams–the New York Jets, New England Patriots, and most notably the Seattle Seahawks–winning a Super Bowl. He also took the Seahawks to two straight big games, only to lose on the last play to the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX.
It should be noted that those Super Bowl trips came in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Now, more than a decade later, Carroll, 73, is set to become the oldest head coach in NFL history. He’ll actually be 74 years old at the beginning of the 2025 season and was out of the league in 2024.
With that age comes valuable experience. But, considering the last time a team coached by Carroll made the playoffs was 2020, one has to wonder if the game has passed him by.
AFC West has the best, oldest coaches in the NFL
It seems likely the Raiders hired Pete Carroll at least partly because of turnarounds Sean Payton and Jim Harbaugh put together for the Broncos and Chargers.
Payton just led the Broncos to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. And Harbaugh took a 5-12 team to 11-6 and the playoffs in one year.
Can Carroll do the same thing with the Raiders?
Well, it took him into Year 3 with the Seahawks to make the playoffs. And this Raiders team certainly needs a lot of help. They’re not likely to make the playoffs in 2025.
However, he and new GM John Spytek do have a second-most $95 million in salary cap going into this offseason. They’ll need that money to fill gaps at many positions, including starting quarterback.
Which opens the question of whether or not Russell Wilson will be back in the AFC West soon, with Carroll in Vegas.
The division was already home to the oldest coach in the NFL–Andy Reid, 66 years old–and now Carroll surpasses him. In fact, the four head coaches are among the six oldest in the league. And all four of them are at least 60 years old.
It’s an interesting approach when much of the NFL is leaning toward younger head coaches in recent years. And the average age of head coaches is 47.7 years old.
There is something to be said about experience, of course.
Reid is hands-down the best coach in the NFL right now and has been for years. His Chiefs are in the midst of trying to win an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl. And they’ve been to five of the last six big games. His staff, too, is likely the best in the league.
Harbaugh proved he still had it this year, turning the Chargers around with a quickness. And Payton had the Broncos competing in 2023 with a roster he didn’t build, before surprisingly making the playoffs this year. It can’t be understated how great a coaching job Payton did considering the team being saddled with the biggest dead cap ever. Don’t forget that Harbaugh outcoached Payton earlier this year, while Payton outcoached Reid in Kansas City before the field goal block.
Add in the Raiders hiring Pete Carroll, and there’s little doubt this is the best-coached division in football.
It all shapes up for a fun, exciting, and difficult division for all four teams going forward.