“It was an experiment coming out of USC to go to the NFL and see if the way we had developed, the culture we had created, the concept of competing the way we did would carry over,” Carroll said. “Mostly, it was the way we treated the people in our program. I wasn’t sure. I had an inkling it would be OK, but I didn’t know and a lot of people probably questioned it as well.
“We didn’t change anything. We maintained the philosophy. We adapted to the players and, of course, the game. After it’s said and done, I feel really good about the time we spent there, that we were able to stay with what we believed in and make it work out all right.”
Carroll went 137-89-1 in 14 seasons in Seattle, putting together double-digit victories eight times over a nine-year stretch. That included consecutive Super Bowl appearances, winning the championship in the 2013 season with the dominant “Legion of Boom” defense.
“I loved my time in Seattle and loved the fans and the people that we met and dealt with and competed with,” Carroll said. “But (Thursday’s) a game for us. We’re going to go play ball.”
Carroll declared that every Raiders player was “live” for that game, but what that meant exactly was hard to say. That especially leaves open the question of whether Smith will take snaps other than in warmups in his former home stadium.
Seattle is where Smith turned around his career when he signed in 2019 as the backup. He had lost his starting job with the Jets and spent one season each with the New York Giants and Los Angeles Chargers.
But it wasn’t until 2022 that Smith became the starter — and he made the most of it. He led the league by completing 69.8% of his passes while throwing for 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns with 11 interceptions. Smith was selected as the AP Comeback Player of the Year.
“It means a lot to me as a place where I called home for six years, was able to have a son there, and I was able to really just kind of turn my career around,” Smith said. “Met some really cool people, got to know a lot of great people there, a lot of great teammates over the years. Just really special things, special thoughts that come to my mind when I think about it.”