Pete Carroll Makes Sky-High Expectations for Raiders Perfectly Clear Ahead of NFL Return

The 73-year-old Super Bowl-winning coach is back on the sidelines in 2025.
Legendary head coach Pete Carroll is back on the sidelines in 2025.
Legendary head coach Pete Carroll is back on the sidelines in 2025. / Candice Ward-Imagn Images
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Legendary head football coach Pete Carroll is back on the sidelines in 2025.

After stepping down as the head coach in Seattle following the 2023 season, Carroll took a year off from coaching before taking a job with the Las Vegas Raiders.

The 73-year-old Carroll, a national championship-winning head coach at the college level and a Super Bowl-winning head coach in the NFL, is as exuberant as ever.

In his first press conference of training camp on Tuesday, Carroll was asked what his expectations are for the Raiders in his first year at the helm. He didn’t hold back.

"We’re gonna win a ton. We're gonna win a bunch of games," Carroll said confidently. "I can't even imagine anything [different]. I've been winning 10 games a year for 20 years or something now. The expectation is we're gonna 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. Expectations are really high and the standards need to be so the expectations can be met. We'll see what happens, you know? I wish I could guarantee it, but I can't even think of what else it could be other than being really successful."

Carroll spent 14 years as head coach of the Seahawks. His three worst seasons were 7-9, 7-9 and 7-10. The 7-9 seasons came in his first two years on the job, while his 7-10 season came in 2021. Other than that, the Seahawks never won less than nine games per season, and eight of his 14 seasons ended with 10 wins or more.

Prior to Seattle, Carroll was the head coach at USC at the college level, where the Trojans went 97-19 in his nine seasons, which included two national titles.

The last two-plus decades since his initial stint as head coach of the New York Jets and New England Patriots in the mid-1990s have gone pretty well for the seasoned veteran head coach. No wonder he has so much confidence heading into the new endeavor with the Raiders.


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Mike McDaniel
MIKE MCDANIEL

Mike McDaniel is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where he has worked since January 2022. His work has been featured at InsideTheACC.com, SB Nation, FanSided and more. McDaniel hosts the Hokie Hangover Podcast, covering Virginia Tech athletics, as well as Basketball Conference: The ACC Football Podcast. Outside of work, he is a husband and father, and an avid golfer.