{"id":654085,"date":"2026-05-20T08:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/654085\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T08:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:59:16","slug":"raiders-dc-only-ran-his-defense-for-6-quarters-under-pete-carroll-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/654085\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiders’ DC Only Ran His Defense for 6 Quarters under Pete Carroll, Report Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Pete Carroll era is over in Las Vegas, but information around what went wrong for the legendary head in his one year with the Raiders continues to trickle in. <\/p>\n

All eyes were on the Raiders\u2019 offense in 2025, but the defense under Carroll and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham wasn\u2019t much better. It was obvious from the outside that Carroll wasn\u2019t happy with Chip Kelly as his offensive coordinator, but it sounds like the alignment was no better on the defensive side. <\/p>\n

In December, the Las Vegas Review-Journal\u2019s Vinny Bonsignore made an interesting statement on his podcast, saying that he had been warned that Carroll and Graham weren\u2019t going to be a great fit. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere [were] people reaching out to me yesterday that know football, that watch football and have been watching this team. It\u2019s clear that there is a lack of an alignment between what Pete Carroll wants to do defensively, what Patrick Graham wants to do defensively,\u201d Bonsignore said on the\u00a0Vegas Nation First and 10<\/a>\u00a0podcast in the final month of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been happening all year. I was told at the very beginning of the year, before when Pat was retained, keep an eye on that because they do things completely different. Their systems are completely different.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But according to Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter<\/a>, the defensive situation in Las Vegas was so dysfunctional last year that Graham was only able to run his defensive scheme for six quarters \u2013 and that only happened because he ignored the head coach. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot long after the team\u2019s OTAs started, Carroll, many believe, frustrated by being ignored on offense, started to alter what he wanted from Graham.\u00a0 Graham desperately tried to explain to Carroll that wanting to do something and actually doing it were two different things,\u201d Carpenter reported on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Raiders player called [and] what he had to say was not good news for an imploding Raiders team. What is up with Pete?\u00a0 I love the man, but he can\u2019t hold anybody accountable and that \u2018golly-gee we\u2019ll get them next week\u2019 pep talks are f\u2014ked up. I think he only wanted PG [Patrick Graham] back so he could resign Maxx [Crosby], because PG ain\u2019t doing what PG do, and when he says f\u2014k it, it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile fans berated Graham, ever the gentleman, he refused to call out Carroll and, as a previously mentioned member of the organization, said to me again, \u201cEverybody has a boss.\u201d I had reported earlier that I didn\u2019t expect Graham back, and that was the reason why. In a never-before-released detail, I can tell you that Patrick Graham essentially ignored Carroll and ran his defense for a grand total of six halves in 2025.\u00a0 That is an accumulative total of three games, and in those six halves, his Silver & Black defense allowed only nine points.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Looking back, there was a detail reported before the start of the 2025 season that was a little more ominous than what it seemed at the time. <\/p>\n

Despite Graham having success calling plays from the booth in 2024, Carroll wanted Graham on the field last year and it was a decision that perplexed Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m interested to see what Patrick Graham looks like coaching from the field as opposed to the booth. I liked him in the booth, getting that All-22 view,\u201d Myers said on the\u00a0Locked on Raiders<\/a>\u00a0podcast in September. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut Coach Carroll said he liked him on the field. He likes to be able to communicate with him. He likes him to be able to look into the players eyes and talk to them and get the energy of the game as well. So we\u2019ll see how that plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turns out, it sounds like Carroll might have wanted Graham on the sideline so he could run the defense himself. <\/p>\n

x: @raidersbeat<\/a><\/p>\n

FIRST AND 10 PODCAST: Is Pete Carroll Coaching For His Job?<\/a><\/p>\n

In this episode of the FIRST AND 10 Podcast, Vegas Nation\u2019s Vinny Bonsignore and Adam Hill discuss the fallout from the Raiders\u2019 31-0 loss to the Eagles in Week 15. They talk about Pete Carroll, and if he is coaching for his job, as well what the Raiders can do with their 2026 draft pick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pete Carroll era is over in Las Vegas, but information around what went wrong for the legendary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-654085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}