The Las Vegas Raiders are trying to rebuild everything, including the culture, but are trying to do that while still competing and winning games in 2025. Pete Carroll has said it a million times now — they’re going straight for it this year.
There is no gap year or true rebuild year in their minds. And, that’s something you do like to hear if you’re a fan because it shows that Carroll, a former Super Bowl winner with the Seattle Seahawks over the Denver Broncos, is confident in his abilities. And, you want a confident coach, but you don’t want a cocky coach that has never done what he says he will do.
Carroll is trying to get the Raiders back to being a respectable franchise. It used to mean something to be a Raider, and to rep the Raiders. Now, in the last few years, or really for a while if you want to be completely honest, the Raiders have been a joke or a laughing stock around the NFL.
With Carroll on board now, there seems to already be a bit of an energy shift. Even the new guys are excited for what’s to come and are already keeping it real about why they wanted to be a Raider.
“I mean, I think every kid grew up wanting to be a Raider,” new safety Lonnie Johnson Jr. said to reporters. “My era wanted to be a Bear because I’m from that way, but you just know the feeling, the historic, as you say, the energy, the NWA always rocking with Raider gear and all type of stuff like that. So it’s like the swagger, everything about the Raiders, I feel like that’s me. I play with that energy. I play with that black hole energy. So, it’s like alright come on, let me show you what the Raiders really about now, now that I’m here.”
The Raiders aren’t there yet, they aren’t back to that franchise that stood for something and put fear in teams. But, something tells me they are closer to it now than they were last year. And even a guy like Johnson, who may primarily play special teams, will be a big part of bringing that back.
You can tell he already respects that aspect of it all.