Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty excited to play for Pete Carroll
Ashton Jeanty is getting ready to start his NFL career with the Las Vegas Raiders. He hopes he can recreate the magic Pete Carroll had with Marshawn Lynch in Seattle.
From 2021 to 2024, the Las Vegas Raiders went through four different head coaches: Jon Gruden, Rich Bisaccia, Josh McDaniels and Antonio Pierce.
After last year’s 4-13 season finished, the Raiders overhauled the coaching staff and front office. They hired John Spytek, who spent years in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ front office, as the team’s new general manager. Their choice to partner the first-time general manager was a Super Bowl winner in Pete Carroll.
Carroll took the 2024 season off after 14 years with the Seattle Seahawks. He’s back in the coaching ranks again in the AFC West and is tasked with turning things around for a team that’s reached 10 wins just once in the last eight years.
Carroll retained Patrick Graham as defensive coordinator and brought in Chip Kelly to coordinate the offense.
That’s not all he brought to Las Vegas. Here are the former Seahawks who joined him in Las Vegas for 2025:
The Raiders sent a third-round pick to the Seahawks this offseason in return for Smith. He spent two seasons under Carroll in Seattle and made the Pro Bowl both years.
Smith had his best seasons in the NFL under Carroll. In 2022, Smith won Comeback Player of the Year honors and finished top-10 in MVP voting after completing a league-best 69.8% of his passes.
He made good on that trade early for the Raiders. The 34-year-old quarterback threw for the third-most yards in the league in Las Vegas’ win over the New England Patriots in Week 1. He also had a memorable moment in his return to Lumen Field with Carroll in the preseason.
Adams made back-to-back All-Pro teams with the New York Jets when Carroll and the Seahawks traded two future first-round picks for him ahead of the 2020 NFL season. Adams was an instant hit in the Pacific Northwest with a career-best 9.5 sacks and a second-team All-Pro nod.
Adams struggled to stay healthy after that. He played in just 22 games total from 2021 to 2023. Adams, like Carroll, left Seattle after the 2023 season as the franchise released him. In 2024, injuries affected his time short with the Tennessee Titans before he requested his release. He joined the Lions’ practice squad and played in two games before the end of the season.
The Raiders signed Adams in late July with one change: a new position. Adams moved from safety, where he’d played for his entire NFL career, to linebacker. He notched three tackles and a quarterback hit against the Patriots in his regular season debut at the new position.