The Raiders made the decision to move on from Pete Carroll after an extremely disappointing 2025 season that will go down as one of the Raiders worst seasons in history, and one of the worst single seasons for an NFL franchise. The Raiders have back to back one and done head coaches and have to nail their hire going into 2026. Las Vegas holds 10 draft picks, and likely will acquire more along with the 2nd most cap space in the NFL and a track to grab their franchise quarterback. Frustrations surround Maxx Crosby, but like most things in the NFL a good quarterback and head coach solve a lot of issues.
“Retread” Hires
Las Vegas has hired their share of round two coaches with Jon Gruden, Josh McDaniels, and Pete Carroll and well all three have failed. If they go this route again, the hire has to be right and a good fit with someone who’s going to not just shape the culture but establish what went wrong in their previous go around and fix that headed into 2026.
Kliff Kingsbury, Commanders OC
- The former Cardinals HC almost became the Raiders OC in 2024 before flipping to the Commanders where in 2024 the offense ranked 7th overall, 5th in rushing, and 17th in passing though largely inflated by Jayden Daniels as a runner. Kingsburg was 28-37 as a head coach out of college including 0-1 in the playoffs. His offense has seen a drop in 2025 though they rank 4th in rushing. Now with 6 years of NFL experience, Kingsbury likely gets a second shot to develop another quarterback as he did with Patrick Mahomes and Daniels. He implements a strong college designed run system easy on quarterbacks with RPO’s similar to what Dante Moore and Fernando Mendoza have thrived in. His offenses would rank 9th in points per drive and 12th in yards per play in the NFL since 2019.
Robert Saleh, 49ers DC
- The 49ers are going to try and keep Saleh, and it’s worth it. The Raiders attempted to draw him to be the teams defensive coordinator in 2025 under Pete Carrol but couldn’t. The former Jets HC was 20-36 largely due to offensive struggles and landing a good offensive coordinator will be the first step in his hiring process or he will likely fail again. His defensive units since 2017 have ranked outside the top 12 just twice (2017, 2020, and 2021) and he quickly turned the 32nd ranked Jets defense in 2021 to 4th in 2022 and 3rd in both 2023 and 2024. His unit ranks 11th this season despite missing three All-Pro defenders, and his defensive philosophy, attitude, and motivation is not something to be pushed aside. Saleh will need to find a young OC with a franchise QB but he’s shown the ability to turn around franchise’s cultures and defensive units quickly, just upgrading from Nathaniel Hackett is the biggest step.
Brian Flores, Vikings DC
Silver And Black Pride
