Pete Carroll is the NFL’s oldest head coach, but he is fired up to get another opportunity after sitting out last year.
Pete Carroll is the NFL’s oldest head coach, but he is fired up to get another opportunity after sitting out last year.Rick Scuteri/Associated Press
Week 1 games are always difficult for game-planning, but the Raiders were especially tricky for the Patriots.
The Raiders’ head coach (Pete Carroll) has coached for decades, but he’s new in Las Vegas. The defensive coordinator (Patrick Graham) is a former Patriot and a holdover with the Raiders, but he’s running Carroll’s defense for the first time. The offensive coordinator (Chip Kelly) has been an NFL head coach but spent the last seven years in college football. And the starting quarterback (Geno Smith) is a 12-year veteran but in his first with the Raiders.
Got it?
“That’s a pretty unique, I think, blend of what we have to try to anticipate,” Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said. “The one thing you don’t want to be is too cute, certainly, in Week 1 or at any time, and think, ‘Well, they think we’re going to do this, so then we’re going to do this.’ ”
The Raiders are coming off another dysfunctional season, this one a 4-13 finish that resulted in the firing of one-and-done coach Antonio Pierce. The Raiders have just one playoff appearance in the last eight years, and are on their fourth head coach (including interims) since Jon Gruden was abruptly fired midway through the 2021 season. One of those coaches was Josh McDaniels, who went 9-16 and is now the Patriots’ offensive coordinator.
Yet it would be foolhardy to assume that the team coming to Gillette Stadium on Sunday is the same dysfunctional Raiders. It won’t include Tom Brady, now one of the team’s minority owners and top executives, who will be calling Giants-Commanders for Fox.
Carroll, the Patriots’ head coach nearly 30 years ago, most recently went 137-89-1 (.606) in 14 years guiding the Seahawks. He won a Super Bowl in his third season, almost won another in his fourth, and made the playoffs 10 times. Carroll is 11-7 in Week 1 games.
At 73, Carroll is the NFL’s oldest head coach, but he is fired up to get another opportunity after sitting out last year.
“Maybe more appreciation than ever,” he said. “I don’t know how to measure how excited I am, but this has just been so much fun, really, to get into this with this club and this ownership.”
The Patriots probably know what they’re going to get from the Raiders’ defense — a healthy dose of Carroll’s Cover 3 scheme that he ran to great success in Seattle. The Patriots this past week watched film of the team’s 2015 Super Bowl win over the Seahawks, and the 35-30 loss to Seattle in Week 2 of 2020.
“Watching old games, watching Cam Newton, watching Tom in the Super Bowl was pretty cool,” quarterback Drake Maye said. “I think it’s great having coach McDaniels, who’s played against this defense and knows some extra little tidbits for me to know, whether it’s in the huddle or before on this play.”
But the Raiders’ offense presents a challenge for the Patriots’ defense. They do have some film on Smith, acquired in a trade from the Seahawks this offseason. Smith is generally more of a quick-passing quarterback, coming off a season with a career-high 70.4 completion percentage with 4,320 yards, 21 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions.
Smith was 27-22 with the Seahawks the last three years, throwing for more than 12,000 yards. He defeated the Patriots last year, going 33 for 44 for 327 yards and a touchdown in a 23-20 overtime win. The Raiders traded for Smith instead of gambling on a quarterback in the draft.
“He’s been everything we wanted him to be,” new general manager John Spytek said.
The Patriots think they have a read on the Raiders’ personnel. The top two weapons are tight end Brock Bowers, a first-team All-Pro last year as a rookie, and running back Ashton Jeanty, the No. 6 pick in this year’s draft. Former Patriot Jakobi Meyers is the possession receiver, and Tre Tucker is the speed threat.
How they will be deployed remains a mystery. Patriots linebacker and captain Robert Spillane said the Raiders’ preseason tape means “zero” to him.
“We’re going on not much game tape,” he said. “They’re going to be throwing the whole gambit of different styles of runs to get Jeanty the ball all over the field, getting Bowers on short throws, intermediate throws, Jakobi over the middle, Tre Tucker will get a jet sweep or two or a screen. We’re just going to play what we know about the people, and go from there.”
Plus, what to expect from the guy calling the plays? Kelly was a head coach for four NFL seasons with the Eagles and 49ers from 2013-16, but since has been in college, serving as UCLA’s head coach from 2018-23 and, as alumnus Vrabel was happy to point out, the offensive coordinator at Ohio State in 2024.
“Certainly, Chip’s offense has expanded and grown,” Vrabel said. “I mean, Chip used to call it on an index card. He had seven plays and they just were really good at them and they went really fast. So, I think that that’s all evolved from the stuff at UCLA, from the stuff at Ohio State, to what he’ll do with those skilled players that we mentioned with the Raiders.”
Carroll has been preaching an underdog mentality all training camp, himself included.
“What I like about it is we have a lot of guys that have come here on a personal mission to prove that they deserve to be here,” Carroll said. “They’re as hungry as you can get, as the guys coming in with the big chips on their shoulders. And we have had just no issues connecting on what we’re all about, how we want to go, how we want to do this.”
Linebacker Robert Spillane, named a Patriots captain for his first season in Foxborough, is a seven-year NFL veteran who played for the Raiders the past two years.
Linebacker Robert Spillane, named a Patriots captain for his first season in Foxborough, is a seven-year NFL veteran who played for the Raiders the past two years.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
KICKING IT OFF
Patriots, Raiders are ready to go
A few other tidbits to get you ready:
⋅ The Raiders have won the past two meetings, 21-17 in 2023 and 30-24 in 2022. But both were in Las Vegas (accounting for two of Josh McDaniels’s nine wins as Raiders coach). The Raiders (0-3) are one of seven franchises yet to win a regular-season game at Gillette Stadium.
⋅ Weird things happen in Patriots-Raiders games, be it the tuck rule (2001 playoffs) or the Chandler Jones walkoff touchdown in 2022.
⋅ Pete Carroll went 31-17 in East Coast games during his Seattle tenure, including 20-11 in 1 p.m. kickoffs.
⋅ Mike Vrabel is 2-4 in Week 1, with a current three-game losing streak while with Tennessee.
⋅ Carroll also went 3-1 against the Patriots during his Seahawks tenure, with regular-season wins in 2012, 2016, and 2020, but the loss in Super Bowl XLIX.
⋅ The Patriots and Raiders, charter members of the American Football League, have played in 12 stadiums since 1960: Kezar Stadium (San Francisco), Boston University Field, Candlestick Park (San Francisco), Frank Youell Field (Oakland), Fenway Park, Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, Boston College Alumni Stadium, Schaefer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Gillette Stadium, Estadio Azteca (Mexico City), and Allegiant Stadium (Las Vegas).
JUST THE FACTS
Another season is up and running
Some factoids about the season, the NFL’s 106th:
⋅ The Patriots’ reign as the most dominant team of the 21st century is starting to come into jeopardy. The Packers are tied with the Patriots with 17 playoff appearances since the 2002 expansion and realignment. The Chiefs have won nine straight division titles, two short of the Patriots’ record of 11 (2009-19).
⋅ The Browns are the only team to not have won a division title since 2002. The Jets and Dolphins only have one apiece. The Texans have won eight AFC South titles in 23 years, but have never been a wild-card team.
⋅ The NFL is playing games in six countries this year: United States, England, Germany, Spain, Ireland, and Brazil.
⋅ Super Bowl LX will be held in February at the 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium, marking the stadium’s second Super Bowl and third for the Bay Area. Ten years ago, the Broncos defeated the Panthers, 24-10, in Peyton Manning’s final game.
ETC.
What’s happening during Week 1?
⋅ The Bills’ Josh Allen hosts the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson in Week 1, marking the first game between the previous two MVPs since … last year, when it was Jackson vs. Patrick Mahomes. Before that, it hadn’t happened since 2000 (Kurt Warner vs. Terrell Davis), and this will just be the fifth occurrence.
⋅ Week 1 is expected to see 12 different starting quarterbacks from a year ago. Five youngsters are getting their shot (the Patriots’ Drake Maye, Falcons’ Michael Penix, Titans’ Cam Ward, Vikings’ J.J. McCarthy, and Saints’ Spencer Rattler) and seven veterans have found new jobs (the Steelers’ Aaron Rodgers, Browns’ Joe Flacco, Colts’ Daniel Jones, Raiders’ Geno Smith, Giants’ Russell Wilson, Jets’ Justin Fields, and Seahawks’ Sam Darnold).
⋅ The Chiefs’ Andy Reid is 17-9 (.654) on kickoff weekend. The Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh is 5-0 in Week 1, as is the Eagles’ Nick Sirianni after beating the Cowboys on Thursday. The Dolphins’ Mike McDaniel (3-0) also is undefeated. The Saints have won six straight Week 1 games.
⋅ The Bengals’ Zac Taylor is 1-5 in Week 1 games, while the Titans have lost four in a row and the Panthers have the worst all-time win percentage (.367, 11-19).
It’s a whole new ballgame
Bill Belichick is correct when he says that at North Carolina, “It’s a much more cohesive, and I’d say unified, view of what we’re trying to do.” But working at a public university requires a level of transparency that the notoriously secretive Belichick is clearly uncomfortable with.
The details of his contract are public — the full terms, the guarantee, the buyout, and the perks. So are his university emails. And while the Patriots are the only team whose scouts are banned from practices or games, other teams aren’t getting the access they expect, either.
Per ESPN, UNC’s college relations website for NFL personnel says that their only contact is to be with Tar Heels pro liaison Frantzy Jourdain, and that “scouts will have zero access to coaches or other personnel people.” Many schools allow scouts to watch an entire practice, while UNC allows just three practice periods, per the report.
It is hardly surprising that Belichick doesn’t want outsiders observing his practices, something he never had to deal with in the NFL, but it’s one of the big changes he’s going to have to adjust to.
Special place in his heart
Lambeau Field used to be a house of horrors for the Lions, who lost an NFL-record 24 straight road games to the Packers from 1992-2024, and Green Bay is considered one of the NFL’s top Super Bowl competitors after landing Micah Parsons.
But Lions coach Dan Campbell could only smile when he saw his team’s 2025 schedule put the Lions in Green Bay in Week 1. Campbell has won three straight games at Lambeau, and is 6-2 against the Packers since becoming coach in 2021.
“I love Lambeau,” Campbell said this past week. “That’s one of those places, on the eighth day, the good Lord made Lambeau so we can go out there and play in it.”
Games actually mean something
NFL preseason games are tedious, noncompetitive, and a drag on season ticket-holders who are forced to pay for them, but they are invaluable for coaches looking to work on the kinks of their game-day operation before Week 1.
Matt Patricia made a big statement last week in his first game as Ohio State’s defensive coordinator, nearly pitching a shutout and limiting Texas’s Arch Manning to 170 passing yards in a 14-7 win. It was Patricia’s first college game in 22 years, and he said afterward he had no idea how it would go.
“I think I really appreciate those preseason games now, I really do,” he said. “Because there’s definitely things in the game today, operationally, communication-wise, the sideline gets a little nuts, there’s a lot of players out there. It’s not the 40-something [players] on an NFL active roster.”
Matt Patricia made a winning return to college football after 22 years away as defensive coordinator for Ohio State.
Matt Patricia made a winning return to college football after 22 years away as defensive coordinator for Ohio State.Tom Orr/Associated Press
Extra points
NFL teams have become filmmakers and content producers who happen to play football. The Buccaneers had Tom Brady in town this past week to help premiere “Raise the Flags,” a 10-part docuseries honoring the team’s 50-year history. Fans also can watch the Cowboys’ “America’s Team,” the Chiefs’ “The Kingdom,” the Bills’ “Hard Knocks,” Netflix’s “Quarterback,” and three episodes of the Patriots’ “Forged in Foxborough.” … Forbes and CNBC released their annual NFL franchise valuations. The Cowboys rank first, with Forbes at $13 billion and CNBC at $12.5 billion. Forbes has the Patriots fourth at $9 billion, while CNBC has them fifth at $9.25 billion. The biggest discrepancy is with the Raiders, with CNBC ranking them fourth at $9.3 billion and Forbes ranking them ninth at $7.7 billion … Speaking of billions, America’s biggest oligarch families are starting to buy into the NFL. The Waltons bought the Broncos in 2022, and now the Koch family owns 10 percent of the Giants after buying a slice this past week for $1 billion, per reports. Giants owners John Mara and Steve Tisch still maintain 50-50 control over the team, but the Kochs provide a significant cash infusion … Thursday night’s Kickoff Game was a strange one. Per Opta Stats, the Eagles’ 24-20 win over the Cowboys marked the first game in 30 years in which the first eight possessions resulted in scores, and the final eight possessions ended without a score … Seven of nine kickoffs also got returned in Thursday’s game, which has to please the NFL, which moved the touchback to the 35-yard line this year to revive kickoff returns … Gotta love the chutzpah of Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, who per ESPN tried in earnest to trade for Parsons before the Cowboys sent him to the Packers. The Cowboys decided they didn’t want to send Parsons to a division rival, or their Week 1 opponent. Imagine the buzz on Thursday night had Parsons been wearing Eagles green … Really not a fan of the NFL scheduling division games in Week 1, as they are the most important games on the schedule and Week 1 is sloppy, preseason-quality football. The NFL scheduled eight of them this week, just the fifth time since 2002 with this many division games in Week 1 … Allen signed an endorsement deal with Brighton-based New Balance this past week … NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson confirmed this past week that RedZone will feature commercials this year, and his new trademark line to kick off the day at 1 p.m. will be, “Seven hours of RedZone football starts now,” dropping the phrase “commercial free.” The NFL generated approximately $23 billion in revenue last year, but it’s never against squeezing fans for a few more pennies.
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.