Is Carroll HOF material?

By: Jake Rajala

The Las Vegas Raiders recently inked Pete Carroll to be their head coach. This makes Carroll the oldest head coach in NFL history. It’s expected that Carroll won’t coach for several more years. With that said, a fascinating question arises: Is Carroll a future Hall of Famer?

Carroll has enjoyed an unearthly run with the Seattle Seahawks. Carroll had two straight 7-9 seasons when he arrived, but the patience with him paid off. He would go onto have 11 winning seasons of 12 total seasons! Yes, you read that correctly. Sean Payton is regarded as a lock as a Hall of Famer. Well, it’s worth noting that Payton has had FIVE losing seasons! The winning percentage by Payton is .618. Meanwhile, the winning percentage by .586. Hence, they have similar success.

Each HC is looking in the rearview mirror of Mike Tomlin and Jim Harbaugh. Tomlin has a winning percentage of .630, while Jim has a winning percentage of .685.

It’s worth mentioning that Pete has a Super Bowl ring and he even went to a second Super Bowl, which they lost. I believe that the Lombardi trophy separates Carroll from most other quality coaches.

Carroll also did a very fine job of having magic untwine before his eyes. The Legion of Boom was in his back pocket. The glory days from Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch were also occurring in the field – which is home to the 12th man.

With this all stated, there is one pivotal aspect: he isn’t done just yet. We witnessed Payton join the AFC West and he had some growing pains. I expect Carroll to have some growing pains in his first season. Nonetheless, Carroll can really make some damage with the right QB. Perhaps Deion’s son may really head to Las Vegas early in the 2025 NFL Draft.

There are pieces in play for the Raiders to be a competitive squad. They have Maxx Crosby, Brock Bowers, and Kolton Miller. These faces are a key reason why they were so close to beating the KC Chiefs!