Pete Carroll hired as Raiders coach after year out of NFL

HENDERSON, Nev. -- The Las Vegas Raiders have hired Pete Carroll to became the franchise's head coach, the team announced Saturday.

Carroll is getting a three-year deal with a fourth-year team option, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Friday.

Carroll, who turns 74 on Sept. 15, is one of four head coaches to have led teams to both a college football national championship and the Super Bowl. The others are Barry Switzer, Jimmy Johnson and Jim Harbaugh.

He will be the Raiders' fifth coach, including interim coaches, since the franchise moved to Las Vegas from Oakland in 2020. The others were Jon Gruden, Rich Bisaccia, Josh McDaniels and Antonio Pierce.

Carroll will be the team's ninth coach, including interims, since Raiders owner Mark Davis took over upon the death of his father, Al, in 2011. The others were Hue Jackson, Dennis Allen, Tony Sparano, Jack Del Rio, Gruden, Bisaccia, McDaniels and Pierce.

As such, Carroll represents stability and experience for a team needing both, especially since Gruden was forced to resign amid his email controversy in October 2021.

Carroll's veteran presence is expected to mesh well with first-time general manager John Spytek, whose hiring was announced Friday, and help the team compete in an AFC West division that boasts coaching heavyweights in Kansas City (Andy Reid), Denver (Sean Payton) and Los Angeles(Harbaugh).

With the Seattle Seahawks, Carroll won Super Bowl XLVIII and a pair of NFC titles and made 10 playoff appearances in 14 years while going 137-89-1 in the regular season and 10-9 in the postseason to become the winningest coach in Seahawks history. Including his head coaching stints with the New York Jets, with whom he went 6-10 in 1994, and the New England Patriots, where he went 27-21 in three seasons with a playoff appearance from 1997 to 1999, his career record is 181-131-1.

After spending the 2000 season out of football and reshaping his coaching philosophy, Carroll was hired by USC, beginning a dominant nine-year run from 2001 to 2009 that included seven consecutive Pac-10 titles, a pair of national championships and a 97-19 record, though NCAA sanctions followed.

The Seahawks lured him away in 2010 with the promise of final say in personnel moves, something he didn't have in either of his two previous head coaching stops.

Carroll is a defensive-minded coach who, along with Spytek, will have to address the large number of pending free agents on that side of the ball for Las Vegas. Among them: defensive ends Malcolm Koonce and K'Lavon Chaisson, linebackers Robert Spillane and Divine Deablo, cornerback Nate Hobbs, and safeties Tre'von Moehrig and Marcus Epps.

The Raiders hold the No. 6 overall draft pick and more than $108 million in salary cap space. They need an upgrade at quarterback but return first-team All-Pro tight end Brock Bowers.

Las Vegas fired Pierce as coach and Tom Telesco as general manager after one season together.

Pierce had been promoted from linebackers coach to interim coach upon the firing on Halloween night 2023 of McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler after less than two full seasons.

Las Vegas finished last in the AFC West with a 4-13 record that included a 10-game losing streak, the franchise's longest such skid in 10 years.br/]