The Las Vegas Raiders are bringing in the right voices to help establish a winning culture in the desert, something that has been desperately lacking for the franchise since its relocation from Oakland, California.
Las Vegas welcomed the most decorated quarterback of all time into the fold this season, as Tom Brady joined the franchise’s ownership group. Brady then lent his voice and experience in the hiring process for the franchise’s next head coach after Antonio Pierce’s dismissal after the season.
The result was Las Vegas hiring legendary coach Pete Carroll as its new head coach.
On Monday, In his introductory press conference, Carroll wasn’t shy about revealing the depths to which they’ll rely on Brady’s insight moving forward.
“[I]t’s our missing to build this football team up around the quarterback position. This isn’t the only spot,” Carroll said in the press conference.
“We happen to have the greatest of all time to help us, and to see clearly, and we’re going to lean on Tom as much as we possibly can for his insights because nobody has the insights that he has. He’s that unique.
“But the quarterback position is one of the positions on the team and we’ve got to make it all fit together well. I had pretty good success with my quarterbacks in the past — you can go all the way back to my college days — and they all turned out to be really extraordinary members of our club. There’s a way to embrace the challenge that the quarterback has from the rest of the football team as well.
“We need to support our guy. And we need to do what we can to make that work. It’s really about making a great football team around the quarterback position. Coach [Bill] Walsh taught me a long time ago that it’s the hardest position in professional sports to play, so we need to make it as easy as possible.
“And we’ll go about doing that by running the football, protecting him, taking care of the ball, playing great defense, and kicking the football when we want to kick it. So, there’s a lot that goes into this. But to think about how fortunate we are to have Tom Brady with us — it’s just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
It’ll be interesting to see how quickly Carroll and Brady can get things turned around in one of the toughest divisions in the league.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.