Pats Pulpit
Neither the New England Patriots nor the Las Vegas Raiders were particularly pleased with how their 2024 seasons went, to a point where both franchises opted to fire their head coaches in January. On Sunday at 1 p.m. ET, their new lead men — Mike Vrabel and Pete Carroll — will get their first chance to show why they were picked by the two respective clubs to head the rebuilding efforts.
With the Raiders as much a blank canvas as the Patriots, we reached out to Matt Holder of Pats Pulpit’s sister site Silver and Black Pride — the SB Nation community for all things Raiders. Here is what he told us about the upcoming game and what to expect from New England’s Week 1 opponent.
1. Both the Patriots and the Raiders are under new leadership this season. How has Pete Carroll changed the culture in Las Vegas early?
ComPETE!
Carroll has made it pretty clear that he wants competition at every position, regardless of what players have done in the past. That’s been a consistent theme of his coaching style everywhere he’s been. For example, Jakorian Bennett was a starting cornerback last year but was reportedly struggling to pick up the new system and was working with the third team defense before getting traded to the Eagles. Also, Jackson Powers-Johnson was considered a shoo-in to start this season after a strong rookie year, but he was asked to switch to right guard and had to earn his spot by beating out Alex Cappa in training camp.
Somewhat surprisingly for a soon-to-be 74-year-old, Carroll has also brought in a new energy to Las Vegas. That goes hand-in-hand with the compete mantra. Additionally, Carroll has made it no secret that he wants to win right away and has brought up the fact that he’s won 10 games several times during his career. We’ll see if this year’s Raiders have enough talent to make that happen.
2. Have defenses had success putting cornerbacks on Brock Bowers and treating him like a wide receiver? Which receiver(s) should New England worry about if they manage to keep a lid on Bowers?
The Denver Broncos were the first team to do that, putting Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II on Bowers. That worked pretty well for the Broncos, as they were one of the few teams that could slow him down during his historic rookie season. Other teams tried to mimic that strategy but had mixed results. It works if you have a top-tier talent at corner like Surtain; however, Bowers is big and athletic enough to beat run-of-the-mill corners.
At wide receiver, the guy to worry about is someone Pats fans should know well: Jakobi Meyers. He’s coming off a career year with his first 1,000-yard campaign and has become a great route runner over the last few seasons. Given the upgrade at quarterback, going from Gardner Minshew/Aidan O’Connell to Geno Smith, there’s plenty of reason to believe Meyers can pick...
