Carroll sets high bar before 1st Raiders camp: ‘We’re gonna win a bunch’
Pete Carroll, on the eve of his first training camp with the Raiders, wasted no time in setting a high standard for his new team.
The coach has a simple definition of what would constitute success for his first season.
“Win a ton,” Carroll said Tuesday.
The Raiders are coming off a 4-13 campaign and have had just one winning season since moving to Las Vegas in 2020. That doesn’t matter to Carroll, who has won a Super Bowl and a college national championship. The 73-year-old is challenging his players to think big.
“We want to win a bunch of games,” said Carroll, who is 170-120-1 in the NFL and 97-19 in college. “I’ve been winning 10 games a year for 20 years or something. What are my expectations? We’re gonna win a bunch. And I don’t care who hears that. I mean, it doesn’t matter to me. It ain’t about what anybody hears, it’s about what we do.”
The message to the Raiders couldn’t have been more clear ahead of the team’s first training camp practice at its Henderson practice facility Wednesday. Carroll wants the group to hit the ground running.
“I’m expecting these guys to be freaking great every day. Coaches, every day. And that’s how we’re gonna go about it to maximize the opportunity that each day brings us,” Carroll said. “And if we do that really well, then we start stacking days and we start stacking days and before you know it, it’s the mock game. And then we’re going to the first preseason game, and away we go.”
Getting the message
Carroll challenged his players at the end of their June minicamp to report to training camp in the best shape of their lives.
He wanted them to be prepared for the demanding workouts he has in store for them. He also wanted to see who would take the directive seriously during the Raiders’ five-week summer break.
Carroll, after players powered through a conditioning test Tuesday morning, was pleased with how the team responded.
“They look great. Guys have really worked out hard to get back to this,” Carroll said. “And that’s the first indication that you get that everybody’s mindful and they’re aware of what’s happening and what’s coming.”
Now the real work begins.
“This is gonna be a hard camp. And it’s going to be challenging for them,” Carroll said. “I hope it’s as challenging as any camp they’ve ever had. We want to practice better than anybody’s practice in the game. And so we’ll see if we can pull that together, but the first indications are really, really good.”
Health check
The Raiders will begin camp in reasonably good health.
Defensive tackle Christian Wilkins will start on the physically unable to perform list while recovering from a foot injury he suffered in Week 5 last season. But defensive end Malcolm Koonce, who missed all of last year with a knee injury, is doing well.
“He should be ready to go,” Carroll said of Koonce. “We’re gonna look after him, make sure we do it right in breaking him in. But he’s ready to go.”
Carroll did not provide a timeline for Wilkins, who signed a four-year, $110 million contract with the Raiders last offseason.
“It’s still uncertain,” Carroll said. “We’ll just have to wait it out.”
Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.
