Pete Carroll says he doesn't feel as if he's coaching for his job

Vincent Bonsignore, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Dec 15, 2025

Published in Football

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LAS VEGAS — As Pete Carroll’s first year as the Las Vegas Raiders’ coach winds down, it’s fair to wonder if he will return next season.

On Monday, Carroll said he is not approaching the final three games as if he is coaching for his job.

“I don’t feel like that at all,” he said. “I’m well beyond that.”

It’s not just the 2-12 record, or the eight-game losing streak, or the 31-0 loss to the Eagles on Sunday.

It’s how the Raiders are regressing rather than progressing.

Or, as an NFL executive said in a text Sunday: “The reality is the team is getting worse every week. They’re getting outschemed, and they have not developed the young players enough for them to be ready.”

All of which was evident Sunday in what looked more like a scrimmage for the Eagles than a game. The Raiders were outclassed at every turn, and it left people in the organization declaring the club had hit “rock bottom.”

Carroll has become the face of that free fall. There is a responsibility that comes with that. And, most likely, a level of accountability that could cost him his job.

But he waved off the notion of feeling the pressure.

“There’s so much pressure that comes right from here,” Carroll said Sunday, pointing to his stomach. “Nobody can pressure me more than myself. My expectations and the standards that I’ve lived by and work by are so high that they’re almost impossible to meet. That’s still the way I know how to live and still the way I know how to coach.”

Did not see this coming

It’s not just that Carroll is the captain of a sinking ship. He forecast a completely different outcome. Somehow, someway, he assessed this team in training camp and declared it capable of winning a “bunch of games.”

Even now, he feels blindsided by reality. He was incredulous to the suggestion that he could have foreseen any of this happening.

“What would I base that thought on?” Carroll said. “That we would be really fighting for our life here? I had nothing but wins, background, history, and all of that to set our expectations and to maintain the standards that we work by.”

And he continues to stand by that.

“We’re still doing that,” Carroll said. “We’re still practicing hard, we’re still working hard, we’re still studying hard. The guys are giving good effort. They’re in the weight room, they’re fighting their tails off.”

They’re not getting results, though, in the form of wins or developing players. And that’s how coaches are judged.

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