The Raiders, with a 4-13 finish last season, have nicked every vein of fan patience. The Black and Silver needed more than just a makeover. They needed to be revived. A cultural CPR. So it wasn’t just news when 73-year-old Pete Carroll, who moves like a linebacker after four shots of espresso, took the job. No more compromises. No more just vibes. Carroll didn’t walk into Vegas with a rebuild plan — he showed up like a man who’s already seen the movie and is sprinting to the finale. Maxx Crosby felt it. Malcolm Koonce pointed it out. Rookies? Already throwing up during drills. Welcome to Carroll Chaos, the new standard.
And then, amid micromanaging drills and yelling orders, he…bled. On the practice field, Pete Carroll literally started to bleed. This story wasn’t revealed by him at a formal press conference. He revealed it as if: Oh, that? I simply sneezed too hard.
When Carroll discussed coaching the Raiders on The Get Got Pod with Marshawn Lynch and Mike Robinson, he was visibly excited. “It’s really really fun. It’s fun as hell.” He doubled down like a child on his first sugar rush and exclaimed, “This is as much fun as you can have in coaching, putting it together like this. And so fortunately, the guys are doing great – and I’m driving them crazy – I was bleeding on the practice field. I hooked somebody or something, you know.” The injury? It’s symbolic. A coach who is bleeding on the field while his players endure two-a-days and competitive chaos? That’s not something you write. You cast it.
NFL, American Football Herren, USA Las Vegas Raiders-Ashton Jeanty press conference, PK, Pressekonferenz Apr 25, 2025 Henderson, NV, USA L-R Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll, Ashton Jeanty and general manager John Spytek pose after a news conference introducing Jeanty as the first round draft pick in the 2025 NFL Draft at Intermountain Health Performance Center. Henderson Intermountain Health Performance Center NV USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xCandicexWardx 20250425_jla_wb4_111
But hearing Carroll say it out loud made Marshawn laugh. And Mike Robinson deadpanned: “You gotta calm down, man. You’re in your 70s, bro. Relax!” But Carroll wasn’t having it. He fired back, “No, I’m not into anything, I’m not in anything,” with all the evasive denial. And it’s not just fluff talk. Maxx Crosby, the defensive leader, has been praising his head coach and referring to Carroll as a culture guy, not the corporate buzzword kind, but the traditional kind.
Crosby stated on the Glory Daze podcast that “If you’re not part of the culture, like you’re going to stand out like a sore thumb…It’s like constant competition.” Half of the time, even Crosby is unsure of what to expect: “You’re excited to hear what he’s got to say in the meetings because you don’t know what the f— is about to happen, and that’s just how he is.” This isn’t a ceremonial hire. Carroll didn’t travel to Vegas to oversee a rebuild. He arrived to change the room’s temperature. If a little blood on the turf is necessary to prove a point, then so be it. And to make a final impression before the Raiders concluded minicamp and headed off for summer break, Carroll made some solid decisions.
Pete Carroll wants camp to be painful, precise, and personal
He decided to make Henderson, Nevada, the official location of the 2025 training camp instead of his cherished Napa, California. Carroll wanted to go back to the Napa middle school fields like it was a scene from Friday Night Lights, but that concept was given the corporate stiff-arm by the front office. The team’s decision to stay at the Intermountain Health Performance Center instead screams, ‘No distractions.’
Rookies’ report July 17. Veterans arrive on July 22. On August 7, Carroll and Geno Smith will play their former team, the Seattle Seahawks, in a poetic preseason opener. Add games against the Niners and Cardinals, along with a workout with San Francisco on August 14, and the summer begins to resemble boot camp more than vacation. And Carroll is not going to relax. Already, the roster is being redesigned at breakneck pace. Do you recall Jonathan Sutherland, the linebacker? May 11th, signed; June 12th, gone. The message? No more passengers.
A deliberate linebacker revamp has included veterans like Devin White, Jaylon Smith, and Elandon Roberts. When you include Bengals star Germaine Pratt, you have a team that may finally stop losing huge plays. There is a method to the craziness, even though Carroll acts like a motivational drill sergeant with aspirations and laughs with Crosby throughout filming sessions. His method is holistic; it develops players from the inside out. Nobody is more concerned with preparation, mentality, or restoring players’ passion for football.
And that’s what the Raiders signed up for. He was hired to bring Vegas back into the spotlight in December. And if Pete must go through training camp by bleeding, barking, or bulldozing? Then so be it. And it appears that he is already doing all three.
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