Silver And Black Pride
We’re five weeks into the 2025 season and the Las Vegas Raiders are already teetering on the brink of irrelevance. Then again, at 1-4, they might have already fallen off the cliff as Sunday’s 40-6 blowout loss to the Indianapolis Colts highlighted how far off the Raiders are from being a contender. That leaves little room for optimism in this week’s winners and losers column.
Since he took the job, Carroll has emphasized that the team is aiming to “win now” and remain competitive. However, the Raiders have been anything but competitive this season, not only losing four games in a row but also dropping three contests by at least two possessions. After Sunday’s game, the head coach even said that he expected “to win right out of the chutes” and that he’s processing the team’s start “poorly”.
What’s even more frustrating is that Carroll seems stuck in his ways and resistant to making changes. The best example is that Geno Smith is playing arguably the worst football of his career, but the head coach refuses to make a quarterback change. Even in a blowout, Smith took every snap for Las Vegas because the offense needs to keep practicing together, according to the head coach. So, after a full offseason and training camp, a 13-year veteran still needs practice?
Something needs to change quickly, or Carroll is going to risk losing the locker room, and it’s decisions (or non-decisions) like this that have many in the fanbase calling for his job just five games in.
As mentioned above, Smith has been terrible for the majority season so far. He’s up to a league-leading nine interceptions after tossing two more on Sunday, which easily could have been three if it weren’t for a dropped pick.
To put it in perspective, Smith had eight interceptions through five games during his rookie year, when he threw a career-high 21 INTs. At least in that campaign, he had a “big-time throw” rate of 5.0 percent, per Pro Football Focus. In 2025, his BTT percentage is just 2.9. So, the Raiders are getting the high-turnover version of Smith without even getting the high-end rewards.
Las Vegas’ special teams have been an absolute mess in the early portion of the season. The team has given up several momentum-swinging plays in that phase of the game, including a blocked punt that led to A.J. Cole suffering an injury, which prevented him from punting for the rest of the game. Also, it didn’t count because of a hold that was on the other side of the play, but the Colts returned a kickoff for a touchdown to further highlight the issues with McMahon’s unit.
Through five games, the Raiders are allowing the fourth-highest average yards per kickoff return (28.1), have the third-lowest net yards per punt (35.9) and own the worst PFF special teams grade (46.1) by nearly five points. That’s without even mentioning the blocked...
