Pete Carroll to Las Vegas: Finally Raiders make a safe effort – and a smart too

Long before moving to Las Vegas, Raiders always seemed like a roller-cube, go-for-bridge kind of surgery.

“Just Win, Baby” was the mantra of their owner Al Davis, but in his last year – and after his son Mark took over after Al’s departure in 2011 – that ethos did not always lead to the most carefully designed by plans to perform it.

They would flail about changing cities, coaches and quarterbacks at a breathtaking speed. They would reach out to genius – Jamarcus Russell on # 1 overall? Lane Kiffin as a 31-year-old head coach? Big free agents or untested assistants get a chance?

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

So over to find another trainer – and maybe strongly influenced by minority owner Tom Brady – this time Raiders went with cooler heads and as much of a safe thing that you can get when you hire someone.

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

Carroll is a well -known item, a stable hand, a rent with no surprise. Does he have the highest upside? Given his age, probably not, but that doesn’t mean he can’t get the raiders back to relevance or perhaps beyond.

However, there should be a few surprises here; This is not a across your-fingers-and-hop-ten-panders kind of movement. You can never really tell when you hire a football coach – some work, some do not. If there was a secret formula, NFL would not turn with job openings.

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

Maybe this was Brady who said the franchise has to become serious; Drives more like the house than the player and sets the odds in their advantage. Carroll is a cultural 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 given Firepower from AFC West, taking another fly on a young assistant who might or may not have been panored was not the best course of action. Especially when the team is still not settled at quarterback and comes from a four-win season.

The department is rich in resume and teams that are on top of the mountain or rise against it. Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes are in Kansas City and are looking for a fourth Super Bowl. Sean Payton is in Denver after taking Rookie QB Bo Nix to the playoffs. Jim Harbaugh is with Los Angeles Chargers, where in his first year with Justin Herbert they also made the post -season.

Only Harbaugh has not won a Super Bowl (he led San Francisco there once), although he, as Carroll during a stint at USC, owns a college football title.

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

Will Carroll succeed in his early 70s? If you’ve seen the man, he seems to have the energy of a 35-year-old. There are wrinkles now, but the positivity he used to charge in New York and New England – and especially at the USC – is still clear.

Raiders did not rent here and expected to hit salary dirt and reveal a superstar who will lead them in the next 15 seasons. They got the guy to get the operation to move in the right direction as soon as possible – and who knows what might be possible in the next few seasons. NFL assets can turn quickly.

If you know something about Carroll, he comes to win, not just set things for the next guy. Maybe he brings his old Seattle QB – Russell Wilson – with him to Vegas in the short term if reports of their reconciliation are true. If not, he will do what he has always done and put an impression on the culture.

Carroll has always been equal parts fun and violent – sometimes his drive to build competition inside the guard plan is overshadowed by his positive personality. For all the memorable success of Wilson and driving back Marshawn Lynch in Seattle, it was always the legendary legion of boom defense that set the tone.

Expect more from it.

This is a sensible rent, a building block rental, an adult rent for a franchise that often goes in the other direction.

A safe effort in Vegas. A potential smart too.