Raiders Season on the Brink: Tough Decisions and Harsh Realities Ahead

HENDERSON, Nev. — The Las Vegas Raiders (1-4) are in trouble as the season is quickly on the verge of getting away from them, and it is only five weeks old.

Our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast focuses on the Raiders' season, highlighting tough decisions and harsh realities ahead.

You can watch the entire podcast below:

Pete Carroll has seen it all over his lifetime and in football, and if anyone can fix the ineptitude of a franchise in peril for nearly two decades, it is him, despite the present appearance.

He spoke yesterday about the state of his team and the enormity of the issues that they face.

You can read the partial transcript below:

Las Vegas Raiders Pete Carroll | Darrell Craig Harris, On SI

Head Coach Pete Carroll

Q: Is this a longer process than you thought it might be?

Head Coach Pete Carroll: "Yeah. It's longer than I expected it to be, yeah. It depends on how you put it together and how it comes together, and I feel like there's no doubt that it's going to and we just got to get it right and get away from the big plays that are causing huge impacts in games and get down to playing ball. The big stats, the normal stats you look at, runs and passes and all that, it doesn't tell the story in this game. It's the big plays that happen in the kicking game and turnover for a touchdown, and those plays are so huge, and so we have to just get out of that kind of ball and get to just playing good football and we're running the ball better than the team that you're playing and you pass the ball better and those things work for you and win for you."

Q: In regards to Germaine Pratt, are you anticipating him practicing this week and playing on Sunday against the Titans?

Coach Carroll: "No. He's been released. Yeah."

Q: Is there a reason for his release?

Coach Carroll: "Of course, yeah. We just thought it was time to go in a different direction."

Q: How do you make up for that loss of Germaine Pratt?

Coach Carroll: "Malcolm [Koonce], [Charles] Snowden and Jamal [Adams] all combining to help. They all play the same spot, and so those guys will work out for us."

Q: Teams are somewhat picking on Kyu Blu Kelly a little bit. How do you help a young cornerback in his situation?

Las Vegas Raiders DB Kyu Blu Kelly | Darrell Craig Harris, On SI

Coach Carroll: "Yeah, just keep working with him. He's doing so many good things, but he is getting the action. And it's interesting, Darien [Porter] played on the other side and really didn't see the ball very much throughout the game. And so, there's ways to help him coverage wise, there's ways to make sure that we're just keeping him on it. It's just a hair of a difference on him playing from the PI situation that we work really hard on. So, no, we just got to keep getting better. I mean, they're going to get the corner sometimes, and we got to help him as much as we can."

Q: Is there any more personnel changes that you expect could be on the way, or are on the way?

Coach Carroll: "No."

Las Vegas Raiders Pete Carroll embraces superstar DE Maxx Crosby | Darrell Craig Harris, On SI

Q: Any update on AJ Cole?

Coach Carroll: "Yeah, he's got a low ankle sprain. He's going to try to kick on Friday. Let's see how he does. So, he's tough about it, and we'll see what happens."

Q: Are you bringing someone else in just in case?

Coach Carroll: "We're talking about other guys, yeah. We got to cover ourselves on this."

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