Raiders hire Pete Carroll as next head coach: Sources

The Las Vegas Raiders have hired Pete Carroll as the team’s next head coach on a three-year deal, league sources confirmed Friday. He replaces Antonio Pierce, who lasted just one full season at the helm before getting fired on Jan. 7.

Carroll, 73, is set to return to the NFL sideline as a head coach for the first time since the conclusion of the 2023 regular season, and brings 18 seasons of experience as a head coach in the league. His hiring means that when he coaches his first game in September, he’ll be the oldest head coach in NFL history.

In three previous roles as a head coach with the New York Jets (1994), New England Patriots (1997-99) and most recently Seattle Seahawks (2010-23), Carroll compiled a 170-120-1 regular-season record and 11-11 postseason record. He led his teams to playoff appearances in 12 of 18 seasons, including coaching the Seahawks to back-to-back Super Bowl appearances in the 2013 and 2014 seasons and the franchise’s first Super Bowl win in 2013.

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Carroll collected most of his career victories in the NFL during his 14 seasons leading the Seahawks, and is the winningest head coach in Seattle’s franchise history with a 137-89-1 regular-season record and 10-9 postseason record. The Seahawks posted winning records in 11 of Carroll’s 14 seasons, including eight seasons with at least 10 victories. Seattle also made 10 trips to the postseason with Carroll, and won five NFC West titles, a pair of NFC Championship Games and Super Bowl XLVIII.

Seattle finished with a 7-9 record Carroll’s first season, but won the NFC West and picked up a wild-card victory. The Seahawks missed the playoffs the next season after another 7-9 finish, but returned the following year, beginning a stretch of nine consecutive winning seasons from 2012-20 and postseason appearances eight of those nine years.

Carroll led Seattle to double-digit wins in 2012 and added another wild-card win in the first of five consecutive seasons with a playoff trip and at least one postseason victory.

Then, in 2013, the Seahawks matched their franchise-best with 13 wins in the regular season, added a second division title with Carroll, and picked up wins over the New Orleans Saints in the divisional round and San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game to reach the Super Bowl for the second time in franchise history. The Seahawks scored five touchdowns — two passing, one rushing, an interception return and kickoff return — in a decisive 43-8 win over the Denver Broncos to win the franchise’s first Super Bowl title.

Carroll led the Seahawks to another NFC West title and NFC Championship Game win the 2014 season before Seattle eventually lost to the New England Patriots 28-24 in a second consecutive Super Bowl appearance.

The Seahawks advanced to the postseason again in 2015 and 2016, and won the NFC West again in 2016, but lost in the divisional round of the playoffs both years. Seattle made four more playoff appearances in Carroll’s final seven seasons, including another NFC West title in 2020, but only picked up one playoff win in that stretch in the wild-card round the 2019 season.

Carroll’s final season with the team in 2023, the Seahawks posted a 9-8 record, finished third in the division standings and missed the postseason. Three days after the regular season concluded, the Seahawks announced in a statement from Seahawks chair Jody Allen that the franchise had “amicably agreed” with Carroll that his role would “evolve from Head Coach to remain with the organization as an advisor” ending Carroll’s 14 seasons as Seattle’s head coach. Carroll later said in a press conference, “I competed pretty hard to be the coach, just so you know.”

“Following season-ending meetings with ownership … it’s clear, and for a variety of reasons, we mutually agreed to take a new course,” Carroll said then.

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In Carroll’s 14 seasons with Seattle, the Seahawks’ defense led the NFL in scoring defense in four seasons from 2012-15, led the league in fewest total yards allowed the 2013 and 2014 seasons and also led in total takeaways in 2013. Seattle’s offense led the NFL in rushing yards twice with Carroll in 2014 and 2018, and also led the league in rushing touchdowns in 2014.

Carroll joined the Seahawks in 2010 after nine seasons coaching at USC from 2001-09, winning two national championships.

He first coached at the NFL level in 1984, spending one season as the Buffalo Bills defensive backs coach, and coached defensive backs with the Minnesota Vikings the next five seasons. He joined the Jets in 1990 and was the defensive coordinator for four seasons before he was hired as New York’s head coach ahead of the 1994 season. The Jets were 6-10 in Carroll’s one season leading the team.

Carroll returned to a defensive coordinator role the next two seasons with the 49ers before becoming New England’s head coach in 1997. Carroll spent three seasons there, leading the Patriots to the playoffs his first two years with the team, including a wild-card win his first season. New England did not post a losing season with Carroll — the Patriots were 27-21 in the regular season and 1-2 in the postseason Carroll’s three years leading the team — but finished 8-8 his final season in 1999, missing the playoffs.

Carroll also interviewed with the Chicago Bears earlier this month.

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(Photo: Joe Camporeale / USA Today)