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The Las Vegas Raiders have only made the playoffs once since the franchise's transfer from Oakland in 2020.
It has been a bleak five-year stretch for the Raiders, who finished last season with an abysmal 4-12 record. Still, coach Pete Carroll is optimistic—defiant, even—ahead of his first tenure in Las Vegas.
As the Raiders started their training camp on Tuesday, Carroll didn't hold back when asked by reporters about his expectations for the upcoming season.
“Win a ton of games,” said the 73-year-old coach, as quoted by Raiders reporter Vincent Bonsignore.
It was quite the answer for Carroll, who was signed by the Raiders in January. But with the team's forgettable campaigns in recent years, perhaps it helps to have someone who is brash and adamant about defying the odds.
“I've covered this team since 2019. I can't remember any other coach talking this boldly about the expectation of winning, like right now. Or embracing the highest levels of expectations,” noted Bonsignore.
While it's easy to dismiss Carroll's remark as delusional or false hope, he knows how to get to the mountaintop. He steered the Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl title in 2014 and USC to seven Pac-10 championships and four Rose Bowl crowns.
He is returning to the sidelines after stepping down from the Seahawks in 2024. He briefly served as the team's consultant. Upon joining the Raiders, leaving Seattle after 15 years, Carroll became the oldest coach in league history.
Not that it matters to him as he enters his 19th season.
“I've been winning 10 games a year for 20 years or something. What are my expectations? We want to win a bunch. And I don't care who hears that. It doesn't matter to me. It ain't about what anybody hears, it's about what we do,” said Carroll in a report from Raiders.com's Levi Edwards.
Now, it will be interesting to see if he can walk the talk.
