For HC Pete Carroll, the Raiders’ training camp this year came with a big milestone and even bigger expectations. In Week 1 of the camp, Carroll officially became the oldest head coach in NFL history to lead a team. But most of his time in the league has been spent in Seattle. Carroll had been with the Seattle Seahawks for 14 seasons. He logged eight double-digit win seasons over nine years with a 137-89-1 record. But after the 2023 season, the Seahawks parted ways with him. Many people immediately assumed that Carroll had quietly stepped away from coaching for good. But they were all proven wrong.  

A few months ago, the Raiders made headlines by hiring Pete Carroll as their new head coach. After a 4-13 season, his competitive fire seemed exactly what the team needed. From the moment he walked into the team, Carroll had set the tone. He brought energy to meetings, focus to on-field reps, and a smile to everything he did. It was classic Carroll. At the very last stretch of the training camp, the coach did not even hesitate to make bold roster moves. He even cut ties with veteran players like Christian Wilkins and made sure that younger players got more reps. The offseason intensity made fans expect that same fire in preseason games. But when it came down to it, the story took a different turn. 

The Raiders opened their preseason against Carroll’s former team, the Seahawks, and before kickoff, Carroll downplayed the emotional angle. “It’s the only game we got,” he had said. “It happens to be in Seattle. I loved my time in Seattle and loved the fans, but it’s a game for us.” It sounded like he was ready to keep it all business. Yet, when the final whistle blew, there was no winner. The Raiders left Seattle with a 23-23 tie. How does a team coached by someone known for his relentless competitiveness walk away with that result? 

QB Geno Smith, who also spent the past few seasons starting for Seattle, played the opening series for the Raiders in the game. He completed just one of three passes for 15 yards before handing over the reins to the next quarterback, Aiden O’Connell. The Raiders then found the end zone for the first time in the third quarter when O’Connell hit Dylan Laube for a six-yard score. Later, rookie Cam Miller launched a 41-yard touchdown pass to Shedrick Jackson on his first drive for the Raiders. That play brought some life to the offense. However, the drama peaked in the final seconds when Raiders’ Kicker Daniel Carlson went for a kick only to have the goal blocked by Jalan Gaines. And just like that, Carroll’s return to Seattle ended in a tie.  

Seattle, for their part, didn’t even put most of their starters on the field. Sam Darnold, Cooper Kupp, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Kenneth Walker III all sat out. Still, the Seahawks kept pace with Las Vegas. “You never want to tie a football game,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said afterward. “That kinda stinks, but there was a lot of great stuff on both sides of the ball.”

Geno Smith later admitted that the Raiders had a slow start. “That’s to be expected for a preseason game,” he said. “But in the second half, we played inspired football. I saw Coach Carroll running up and down the sidelines just out of his mind a little bit.” And Pete Carroll shared the same assessment. “We started really poorly… We didn’t run the ball well in the first half, we didn’t really do anything very well,” he said. “But we stayed close. It was an opportunity to face that and come back in the second half. It was a marvelous second half.” But was “staying close” really the mindset? 

For a coach who built a career on refusing to settle, walking away with a tie against a team missing most of its stars feels underwhelming. Shouldn’t this have been a statement game for Pete Carroll? The NFL community didn’t hold back. As many fans were quick to point out the irony.

Fans react to Pete Carroll’s lack of fire in the Raiders’ preseason game

The Raiders aren’t a finished product, and preseason games aren’t season-defining. But they do set a tone. If Pete Carroll was hired to reignite the fire in Las Vegas, the tie against the Seahawks was hardly the blaze fans were promised. Therefore, the fans immediately took to social media to express their disappointment in the head coach.  

One fan wrote, “Pete Carroll still has not beaten the #Seahawks yet, only tied. 👀 I know it’s one game. Let me vibe for a second, haha.” That’s a sharp observation, and it raises a question. Can Carroll truly move the Raiders forward if he can’t even edge past his former team in a low-stakes game? But it could also just be an odd bit of trivia that won’t matter once the regular season starts.

Another fan said, “Pete Carroll is hilarious for that tie.” Hilarious or a little embarrassing? For a coach known for his relentless will to win, a tie must feel like a gut punch rather than comedy for Carroll. One supporter even took a jab at both Carroll and kicker Daniel Carlson as they wrote, “The spirit of Pete Carroll infected him on the field.” It’s a funny line, but it also points to a concern. Did Carroll’s approach set a tone of complacency? 

Then came perhaps the most cutting comment of the night: “Unserious.” That’s brutal. But is it fair? If preseason games are about experimentation, maybe fans are overreacting. So here’s the bigger question: Was this just preseason rust, or does it hint at a deeper issue in Pete Carroll’s coaching approach? Carroll insists the team learned from the game. But in a league where momentum and perception carry weight, a tie in his Raiders debut may have already given his critics fuel to last the entire season.