Pete Carroll to Las Vegas: Finally the Raiders make a safe bet — and a smart one too

Long before they moved to Las Vegas, the Raiders always seemed like a roll-the-dice, go-for-broke kind of operation.

"Just win, baby" was the mantra of their owner Al Davis, but in his final years — and after his son Mark took over following Al's passing in 2011 — that ethos didn’t always lead to the most carefully crafted of plans to accomplish it.

They’d flail about changing cities, coaches and quarterbacks at breathtaking speed. They’d reach for genius — JaMarcus Russell at No. 1 overall? Lane Kiffin as a 31-year-old head coach? Big free agents or unproven assistants getting a chance?

Not much worked as the last 22 seasons have produced zero playoff victories.

So faced with finding another coach — and perhaps heavily influenced by minority owner Tom Brady — the Raiders this time went with cooler heads and as much of a sure thing as you can get when hiring someone.

Friday they announced a deal with Pete Carroll, the 73-year-old former Super Bowl champion in Seattle.

Carroll is a known commodity, a steady hand, a no-surprise hire. Does he have the highest upside? Considering his age, probably not, but that doesn’t mean he can’t get the Raiders back to relevance or perhaps beyond.

There should be few surprises here though; this isn’t a cross-your-fingers-and-hope-this-pans-out kind of move. You can never truly tell when hiring a football coach — some work, some don’t. If there was a secret formula, the NFL wouldn’t spin with job openings.

Carroll is about as good as it gets though — professional and proven. Across 18 seasons with three different franchises (New York Jets, New England, Seattle), Carroll had just four losing seasons. He’s 170-120 overall and reached two Super Bowls, including that Seahawks title after the 2013 campaign.

Maybe this was Brady saying the franchise needs to get serious; operating more like the house than the player and putting the odds in their favor. Carroll is a culture-setting coach and certainly up to the task of building a long-term winner — he won over 60 percent of his games in Seattle.

Or maybe this was the realization that considering the firepower of the AFC West, taking another flier on a young assistant who may or may not pan out wasn’t the best course of action. Especially when the team still isn’t settled at quarterback and is coming off a four-win season.

The division is rich with résumé and teams that are atop the mountain or ascending toward it. Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes are in Kansas City seeking a fourth Super Bowl. Sean Payton is in Denver, having taken rookie QB Bo Nix to the playoffs. Jim Harbaugh is with the Los Angeles Chargers, where in his first year with Justin Herbert they, too, made the postseason.

Only Harbaugh hasn’t won a Super Bowl (he did lead San Francisco there once) although he does, like Carroll during a stint at USC, own a college football national title.

That kind of divisional competition can chew up even the best young coach, especially without a similar roster. With Carroll, at least they have someone who can stand toe-to-toe from the sideline.

Will Carroll be successful in his early 70s? If you’ve seen the man, he appears to have the energy of a 35-year-old. There are wrinkles now, but the positivity that he used to charge around with in New York and New England — and especially at USC — is still evident.

The Raiders didn’t make a hire here expecting to hit pay dirt and uncover a superstar that will lead them for the next 15 seasons. They got the guy to get the operation moving in the right direction as soon as possible — and who knows what might be possible over the next few seasons. NFL fortunes can flip, fast.

If you know anything about Carroll, he is coming to win, not merely set things up for the next guy. Perhaps he brings his old Seattle QB — Russell Wilson — with him to Vegas for the short term if reports of their reconciliation are true. If not, he’ll do what he has always done and put an imprint on the culture.

Carroll has always been equal parts fun and ferocious — sometimes his drive to build competition inside the roster is overshadowed by his positive personality. For all of the memorable success of Wilson and running back Marshawn Lynch in Seattle, it was always the legendary Legion of Boom defense that set the tone.

Expect more of that.

This is a sensible hire, a building block hire, a grown-up hire for a franchise that often goes in the other direction.

A safe bet in Vegas. A potentially smart one too.