One of those candidates is former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, who won a Super Bowl a pair of NFC Championship Games during his 14 years with the Seahawks.
Carroll also spent one season as the head coach of the New York Jets, and three seasons in the same role with the New England Patriots before his successful 14-year stint with the Seahawks.
In a recent article predicting what each team with a head-coach opening will do in 2025, Mike Pendleton of Bears Wire predicted that Carroll will end up with the Raiders as their next head coach.
The former Seahawks head coach found his name come up later in the coaching cycle, but is said to be interested in both the Bears and Raiders vacancies. Carroll would be a great secondary plan for the Bears if they missed out on Johnson, but he'd also serve as the big splash looking to be made by Tom Brady and the Raiders.
There's no telling what Las Vegas will do with their quarterback position, which is of the utmost importance, but Carroll has been known to get the most out of all his players, especially at the quarterback position. Carroll brings a proven winner to the organization after he won five divisional titles and one Super Bowl ring during his 10 seasons in Seattle, and the rebuilding of Raiders culture is certainly needed. He may not have been on everyone's radar, but if Carroll is truly enthusiastic about returning to coaching, Las Vegas could be the perfect fit for him, and he could be the perfect fit for a team needing to make a splash.
Just in case you were wondering, Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was predicted to go to the Chicago Bears in the same article.
Of course, Johnson appears to be the No. 1 choice for the Raiders in their head coach search, but Carroll might be next in line to get the job if Johnson turns it down, according to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"If Ben (Johnson) doesn't want it, I believe Pete (Carroll) gets it," Bonsignore wrote.
Momentum for the Raiders to hire Johnson has been building as the days progress, so it would be quite the disappointment if Las Vegas fell short in its pursuit. And, hiring Carroll wouldn't come close to bringing the kind of excitement a Johnson hire would.
That said, Carroll would bring a ton of experience and a Super Bowl ring with him to Las Vegas and can build the kind of culture Las Vegas needs. He isn't the sexiest option, but the Raiders could do a lot worse, like their previous two head coaches, for example.
