Eight months after being removed from the gridiron, Derek Carr still bleeds silver and black. Not enough to lace up the cleats again; those days ended with a shoulder injury last May, but enough to entertain a wildly unconventional idea. The former Las Vegas Raiders quarterback didn’t just express interest in coaching recently; he practically submitted his resume on air.

“I’m telling you right now, I know who it should be,” Derek said on the Home Grown podcast with his brother David Carr on January 15. “I would love to be the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.”

While Carr’s declaration landed somewhere between genuine aspiration and playful fantasy, the timing couldn’t be more curious. Las Vegas just fired Pete Carroll after a disastrous season, and the franchise finds itself at a familiar crossroads. They’re searching for stability once again in a decade defined by chaos. Since their 2020 move to Nevada, the Raiders have cycled through three head coaches (and two interim head coaches). Each promised a fresh start, but failed to deliver.

Meanwhile, Derek Carr has spent nine seasons in Oakland and Las Vegas, enduring the relocation, regime changes, and rebuilding cycles that come with being a Raider. He’s thrown for over 35,000 yards in silver and black, earning four Pro Bowl selections before the franchise moved on in 2023.

His departure to the New Orleans Saints was supposed to be a fresh chapter. Instead, it became a brief epilogue: two injury-plagued seasons before announcing his retirement in May 2025. But retirement hasn’t dulled his affection for the franchise that drafted him back in 2014.

“I would love it,” Carr said about the head coaching role. “You don’t understand how much I love the silver and black.”

This wasn’t his first mention of coaching aspirations either. Back in December 2025, Carr told reporters about his post-playing dreams, listing coaching among the possibilities. What makes this podcast moment different is the specificity: the Raiders, the only NFL team he truly calls home.

Could it actually work? Former quarterbacks often transition to coaching, but rarely this quickly and seldom straight to head coach. Carr’s football IQ is unquestioned, and his nine years navigating the Raiders’ turbulence taught him lessons no playbook could provide. But leading a roster and commanding a locker room without coordinator experience? That’s a canyon-sized leap into uncharted territory. But the decision won’t be Carr’s to make, or even owner Mark Davis’ alone. Carr would need Tom Brady’s approval.

Tom Brady’s vision for the Raiders

Tom Brady, legendary quarterback, broadcaster, and a minority owner of the Raiders, is actively reshaping the Raiders’ future. Brady and general manager John Spytek are on the hunt for the new head coach together, and Brady will have a big say in the final call. This involvement in the coaching search signals a franchise trying to leverage their championship pedigree to escape their mediocrity.

“I think every team right now is going through their own process to try to figure out what best suits them,” Brady noted in a recent interview. “We want to deliver a winner in Las Vegas. The fan base deserves it, and it’s been a long time. So, there’s a lot of pieces of the puzzle you got to get right, but I’m certainly very excited that we’re going to get things going in the right direction.”

Brady’s championship standards demand proven leadership. The Raiders have already looked into coaches like Brian Flores and Jesse Minter: experienced coaches who’ve climbed the traditional ladder. Derek Carr’s name carries a nostalgic appeal, sure, but that might not be enough to win football games.

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Still, crazier things have happened in Las Vegas. Whether Brady, Spytek, and Davis see Carr as a genuine candidate or a sentimental footnote remains unclear. What’s certain is that Carr’s love for the Raiders never retired, even if he did.