Pete Carroll downplays return to Seattle for Raiders’ preseason opener

Pete Carroll’s first game as the Raiders’ coach will be in familiar territory.

The Raiders open the preseason Thursday in Seattle, a place Carroll called home for 14 years and won a Super Bowl.

He tried to downplay his trip back to the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday and the significance of his first game with the Raiders at Lumen Field, a stadium filled with so many memories that there aren’t enough scrapbooks to contain them.

“It’s the only game we got,” Carroll said after practice. “It happens to be in Seattle.”

Nobody was buying it, of course. It isn’t possible to spend that much time in one city, win as many games as he and the Seahawks did, and elevate a franchise to heights it had never seen and not have a strong sense of nostalgia upon returning for the first time.

So no matter how much he tried to downplay the significance, it isn’t lost on him what it means to return.

“I feel really good about the time we spent there,” he said. “That we were able to stay with what we believed in and make it work. That’s really what stands out about it.”

The trip is also a homecoming for Raiders quarterback Geno Smith, who spent five seasons with the Seahawks. He arrived in the Pacific Northwest as an NFL backup, only to turn his career around when Carroll made him the replacement for longtime Seattle starter Russell Wilson in 2022.

Over the next three seasons, Smith won the sixth-most games of any quarterback and completed the highest percentage of passes.

A contract impasse with the Seahawks in the offseason opened the door for Smith to reunite with Carroll in Las Vegas. The Raiders acquired him for a third-round pick.

It remains to be seen if Smith and the rest of the starters take the field Thursday — Carroll left open the possibility of them playing by saying everyone on the team is “live” — but Smith is eagerly anticipating his return either way.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “Looking forward to seeing my old teammates. Old coaches. People in the building. It’ll be fun. I’m also going back with Pete. That’s pretty cool.”

Fond memories

Carroll arrived in Seattle in 2010 after a memorable run as USC’s coach that included a national championship. His success with the Trojans had put him back on the NFL radar after failed coaching stints with the Patriots and Jets.

But it wasn’t until the Seahawks offered him the chance to run every aspect of their football operations that he made the jump back to the professional ranks. It was an opportunity to see if the core principles that created success in college could carry over the the NFL.

“It was an experiment, coming out of USC to go to the NFL and to see if the way we had developed the culture that we had created, the concept of competing the way we did would carry over,” Carroll said. “And mostly it was the way we treated the people in the program.”

Carroll’s Seahawks won 137 games. The wins and the .606 winning percentage are the most and highest of any coach in Seahawks history. So, too, are the 10 playoff appearances. He’s tied with Mike Holmgren for the most division titles with five.

“We maintained the philosophy, we adapted to the players and of course the game,” Carroll said. “I feel really good about the time we spent there, that we were able to stay with what we believed in and make it work out.”

Smith also made it work in Seattle.

“It’s a place I called home for six years,” he said. “I had a son there. I was able to really just kind of turn my career around.”

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.