After coming up empty in the Ben Johnson Sweepstakes, Tom Brady gets his guy — and it happens to be the coach whose team his New England Patriots beat in Super Bowl XLIX.
Pete Carroll, who was once a candidate for the Chicago Bears head coaching position, is returning to the NFL after a one-year hiatus to coach the Las Vegas Raiders in 2025.
No, seriously. This is a thing that is happening in 2025:
Other candidates have now been told they’re out. Pete Carroll is going to be the #Raiders head coach. https://t.co/ORd9n5jJBe
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 24, 2025
Tom Brady and Pete Carroll will be forever linked by one fateful Super Bowl decision. And now, they are about to be partners. Whichever intern in the NFL’s script-writing department cooked up this storyline deserves a raise and a promotion. There are so many fun storylines to play out in Vegas with Carroll, Brady, and the rest of the Raiders. It will certainly be fun to watch from afar.
Pete Carroll returns to the NFL with the Las Vegas Raiders
Once the Raiders make it officially official, this is what an updated look at this offseason’s NFL head coach hiring cycle looks like:
- CHICAGO BEARS: Ben Johnson
- LAS VEGAS RAIDERS: Pete Carroll
- NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: Mike Vrabel
- NEW YORK JETS: Aaron Glenn
- JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS: Liam Coen
As of this posting, the only head coach positions that remain vacant belong to the New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys. Glenn was a candidate in New Orleans before he landed with the Jets. As for the Cowboys, that situation is uncertain at best. One moment, it feels like Deion Sanders is a prime candidate. But in the next, it feels like Brian Schottenheimer is the guy. Pete Carroll would’ve made sense in Dallas, but Jerry Jones might not want someone with that big of a personality who wasn’t one of his former players. Maybe the Cowboys are waiting out the Philadelphia Eagles, whose offensive coordinator (Kellen Moore) is believed to be a top candidate.
We often discuss how the NFC North is a gauntlet. But with Pete Carroll going to the Raiders, the AFC West now features four of football’s best coaches. And I’m not just talking about the best coaches right now. These are historically great coaches. Andy Reid has won multiple Super Bowls. Carroll and Sean Payton have won one, too. Jim Harbaugh hasn’t won a Super Bowl yet, but he is just one year removed from winning a college football national championship — which is something Carroll can boast, too. It’s just one juggernaut after another. Good luck dealing in that division.
I spilled a fair share of virtual ink earlier in the Bears’ coaching search writing about Pete Carroll as a fit for the Bears. I opined that Carroll would be a good fit for a franchise that needed a clean slate and was seeking leadership and direction. And it hit me this morning: Everything I wrote about Carroll and the Bears could be re-packaged and written about Carroll and the Raiders. I think this is a good fit for Vegas, as his arrival brings some stability and respectability to a franchise lacking both of those things in recent seasons.
Résumés do not get much better than Pete Carroll’s. Yes, I understand that hiring a 73-year-old head coach isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. And I would be curious if there was a contingency plan in place. But (1) that is a Raiders problem and not something we have to deal with and (2) isn’t a thing that should be on the radar right now. The Raiders made a sensible higher who brings some legitimacy to their franchise. Good for them. Pat, pat, pat.
One last nugget: The Bears are scheduled to face the Raiders on the road this season. And while it is way too early to forecast television schedules, it would not surprise me to see TV execs angle to get the meeting between Ben Johnson (the coach who got the Bears job) and Pete Carroll (who reportedly wanted the gig, too). Stay tuned.
Source: View source
