LAS VEGAS — What had essentially been known for weeks came to fruition Monday. After one year on the job, Pete Carroll is out as the Las Vegas Raiders coach.

The Raiders made the firing official Monday morning after owner Mark Davis, minority owner Tom Brady and general manager John Spytek huddled at the team’s Henderson headquarters and made the decision.

They will now begin their fourth coaching search in five years. The difference this time is they will be armed with the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft and a far more defined power structure with Brady and Spytek now firmly in charge of the immediate and long-range future of the team.

The power of the first pick, which could land the franchise-altering quarterback that has alluded the Raiders for years, plus Brady and Spytek in place as the leaders of football operations, will be an attractive selling point in their search for a coach.

As players packed up their lockers Monday, one day after completing a 3-14 season under Carroll, there was almost a sense of inevitability.

“If you don’t play well, your job’s at stake,” offensive lineman Alex Cappa said. “That’s players and coaches. We have to do more to produce better. I appreciate Pete. I learned a lot from Pete. And a lot that I’ll carry with me after this game, I learned from Pete.”

Carroll, 74, was hired in January 2025, hoping his track record as a program builder and winner would lift the Raiders’ floor, much like he did in his coaching jobs at USC and the Seahawks.

If anything, the Raiders regressed in his one season in Las Vegas.

Despite Carroll’s optimism that the Raiders would quickly turn things around after finishing 4-13 last season, the team never took hold.

He was the second of three coaches fired Monday, along with the Cleveland Browns’ Kevin Stefanski and the Arizona Cardinals’ Jonathan Gannon. The Atlanta Falcons fired Raheem Morris on Sunday.

Despite the struggles, players held Carroll in high esteem. There was never any sense that they quit on him.

“He was great for us all year,” wide receiver Tre Tucker said. “I know personally, a great person, very optimistic, high energy. I just give him the utmost respect for staying the same all year. And that’s very hard to do, despite what we were doing. Nobody wanted the record that we had. Nobody wanted the results that we had. And it’s on everybody.”

Two things did in Carroll and the Raiders: His handpicked quarterback, Geno Smith, did not deliver on the confidence Carroll put in him to stabilize the position. Smith never provided the consistent level of play he produced during his three seasons as Seattle’s quarterback, two of them with Carroll as his coach.

Smith threw an NFL-high 17 interceptions and was sacked a league-high 55 times. The Raiders were simply not good enough to overcome such bad quarterback play.

As damaging was the regression of the offensive line, partly the fault of injuries to starting left tackle Kolton Miller and starting right guard Jackson Powers-Johnson. It’s not as if the line was good with those two starters on the field, but they were even worse without them while failing to consistently open holes for rookie running back Ashton Jeanty or protect Smith.

In addition to the on-field issues, Carroll and Spytek never seemed to be on the same page. Carroll preached his win-now mentality despite the obvious reality that the Raiders were not a good team and favored veterans over giving younger players more time for development. The front office preferred a more developmental approach in which young players were brought along faster.

As the Raiders look to the future, expect them to line up their new coach with the young quarterback they potentially select in the draft.

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