Tag: AFC West

Pete Carroll could be part of the greatest coaching division in NFL history

Pete Carroll, Andy Reid, Sean Payton, and Jim Harbaugh are all coaching in the same division. It’s hard to comprehend how great the four coaches are.

If you love the NFL and its history, you have to be excited about seeing the news that Pete Carroll will coach the Las Vegas Raiders. Carroll will coach in the AFC West, going up against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. He will try to slow down the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers, two teams which made the NFL playoffs this past season. If you stop for a moment and consider the four coaches who make up the AFC West coaching contingent, it is hard to think of another time in NFL history when one division had four great all-time head coaches.

The mid-1980s NFC East had three all-timers: Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys, Bill Parcells of the New York Giants, and Joe Gibbs of the Washington Redskins. The 2025 AFC West, however, will have four all-time greats.

Pete Carroll, Andy Reid, and Sean Payton have all won the Super Bowl. Carroll is the only man alive to have won the Super Bowl, Rose Bowl, and college football national championship. Andy Reid has won three Super Bowls and should become — in a few years — just the fourth man ever to win 300 NFL games as a head coach. Jim Harbaugh is one of a select few men who have won a college football national championship and coached in a Super Bowl.

All four men — Carroll, Reid, Payton, and Harbaugh — have coached in multiple conference championship games. All are in the top 95 on the NFL head coaching wins list.

Pete Carroll, Sean Payton, and Andy Reid are all in the top 20 for all-time NFL head coaching wins. They all have 170 or more wins.

The list of statistics and milestones goes on and on and on. This might be the best division of coaches in the history of the NFL.

Russell Wilson could join a Broncos’ division rival in 2025

After the Raiders hired Pete Carroll, pending free agent QB Russell Wilson is a name to watch for Las Vegas this offseason.

Well, this would be quite a story.

Immediately after the Las Vegas Raiders hired Pete Carroll as their head coach last week, fans and pundits quickly pointed out quarterback Russell Wilson could reunite with his old coach in Las Vegas.

Carroll and Wilson, of course, won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks (and they lost one, too). The coach and QB seemed to have a bit of a falling out toward the end of Wilson’s tenure in Seattle, but they are apparently on good terms now.

The Raiders were among the teams Wilson wanted to join in 2024, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. The Athletic’s Jeff Howe has also fueled specuatlion:

Wilson spent last season with the Pittsburgh Steelers after being cut by the Denver Broncos. He is now scheduled to become a free agent in March.

Wilson and Broncos coach Sean Payton seemingly exchanged subtle jabs this spring, and the 36-year-old quarterback now appears to be a candidate to return to the AFC West in 2025. Wilson playing against Payton and the Broncos twice next season would be must-watch TV.

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AFC West now has absolutely legendary lineup of head coaches

Andy Reid started it all. Long been one of the most respected NFL coaches. Comes to the Chiefs and turns them into a power house. And for several years, it was Reid and the Chiefs and everyone else. That changed two years ago when the Broncos hired …

Andy Reid started it all. Long been one of the most respected NFL coaches. Comes to the Chiefs and turns them into a power house. And for several years, it was Reid and the Chiefs and everyone else.

That changed two years ago when the Broncos hired Sean Payton as head coach. Then the Chargers joined them last year, hiring reigning National Championship winning head coach Jim Harbaugh. Leaving the Raiders as the stragglers.

Not any more.

Friday the Raiders signed Pete Carroll to a three-year deal to become their head coach. Completing and AFC West makeover of head coaching and giving the division the most legendary foursome of head coaches you’ll ever see.

Between the four of them, you have 20 Conference Championships and nine Super Bowl appearances.

Here’s how that stacks up:

Stats Andy Reid Sean Payton Pete Carroll Jim Harbaugh
Conf Champ gms 12 3 2 3
Super Bowls 5 1 2 1
Super Bowl wins 3 1 1 0

Carroll’s playoff record (11-11), Super Bowl appearances (two), and Super Bowl wins (one) are all second only to Andy Reid in the division.

And you can throw in a College Football National Championship, which he and Harbaugh both have.

It took a while, but the Raiders feel like they can finally compete with the rest of the AFC West in the legendary head coach department.

With Pete Carroll, AFC West is stacked with coaching talent

With Pete Carroll, AFC West is stacked with coaching talent

Former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll is officially the next leader of the Las Vegas Raiders. After one year away from the sport, Carroll is back in black… literally. The Super Bowl XLVIII champion will now attempt to work his rebuilding/culture setting magic once more in Sin City with a Raiders team that’s been lost in the wilderness for the better part of two full decades.

However, it won’t be an easy road for Carroll, as the AFC West is now brimming with top coaches in all four teams. Andy Reid leads the Kansas City Chiefs, Carroll’s former arch rival Jim Harbaugh is with the Los Angeles Chargers, and Sean Payton is now entering his third year with the Denver Broncos. When looking at the resume’s of all four men, it is an embarrassment of riches.

Of course the bulk of those Super Bowl and conference championship appearances do come from Andy Reid. Reid has taken the Chiefs to four Super Bowls, and he went to one with the Philadelphia Eagles back in 2004. In total, he has 12 appearances in the conference championship round, seven with the Chiefs and five with the Eagles.

That being said, Carroll’s two trips to the Super Bowl are second only to Reid in the AFC West, having one more than both Harbaugh and Payton. His postseason record of 11-11 is better than Payton’s (9-9) and Harbaugh’s (5-4) as well.

It won’t be an easy path to success, and this Raiders job is arguably the greatest challenge of Carroll’s career. Yet I have a strong feeling this is exactly how Pete likes it.

Always compete… and just win, baby!

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The AFC West is now stacked with Super Bowl-winning coaches

AFC West coaches Andy Reid, Sean Payton, Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh have reached nine combined Super Bowls.

The Las Vegas Raiders made a splash on Friday by hiring Pete Carroll as their new head coach.

Carroll, 73, now joins a stacked group of head coaches in AFC West. Carroll, who won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks, will now compete against three-time Super Bowl champion Andy Reid (Kansas City Chiefs) and one-time Super Bowl champion Sean Payton (Denver Broncos).

Jim Harbaugh also just joined the division last year and while he does not yet have a ring, Harbaugh led the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance and he has a 55-25-1 all-time record in the NFL.

The four AFC West coaches have reached 20 conference title games with nine combined Super Bowl appearances, arguably making it the most impressive division of coaches in the NFL.

The Chiefs (Patrick Mahomes), Chargers (Justin Herbert) and Broncos (Bo Nix) all have their answers at quarterback. Now Carroll will aim to help the Raiders find their long-term QB in 2025.

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Broncos coaching staff buzz: Mixed news for Denver

Good news: Ben Johnson did not land with Raiders. Bad news: Johnson’s Bears are “heavily pursuing” Darren Rizzi, a presumed Broncos target.

The NFL’s latest coaching carousel buzz brings mixed news for the Denver Broncos.

First, the good news: Ben Johnson opted to join the Chicago Bears instead of one of Denver’s division rivals.

The former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator is set to become Chicago’s new head coach, but he apparently “strongly considered” taking the HC job with the Las Vegas Raiders, according to The Athletic‘s Dianna Russini.

The Broncos are seemingly fortunate that one of the hottest coaching candidates of this hiring cycle did not end up in the AFC West.

Now, the not-so-good news: Johnson is eyeing a coach that has been linked to Denver. The Bears are “heavily pursuing” ex-New Orleans Saints interim head coach/special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi for their open ST coach position, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Rizzi, of course, coached under Sean Payton with the Saints, and he is a presumed candidate to replace Ben Kotwica, who was fired by the Broncos last week. If Rizzi ends up taking a job under Johnson in Chicago, Denver will have to look elsewhere for a new special teams coordinator.

Meanwhile, Saints running back Alvin Kamara has endorsed Rizzi for the full-time HC job in New Orleans. He seems to be an in-demand coach.

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Greg Penner wants Broncos to win the AFC West in 2025

“Our absolute goal next year is to win our division,” Broncos owner Greg Penner said ahead of the 2025 NFL offseason.

The Denver Broncos improved from 8-9 to 10-7 in coach Sean Payton’s first two years on the job. Now team owner Greg Penner wants to see the club make the next step.

“Absolutely, yes,” Penner said on Jan. 15 when asked if the team is close to competing for a division title. “I mean we could have very easily been 2-0 against the Chiefs this year. Our absolute goal next year is to win our division. I think Bo [Nix] talking about no prima donnas is a great testament to the culture that Sean is building here, which is we want to be a winning culture.

“We have to have really high expectations, and everybody has to be in it together. I don’t think prima donnas would do really well right now here in this culture. So we’re going to continue to build this way. We want guys that are incredible competitive and want to work and want to succeed.”

Denver lost to Kansas City in Week 10 on a blocked field goal, then the Broncos blew out the Chiefs’ backups in Week 18. A year earlier, Denver and KC split the series 1-1 with the Broncos outscoring the Chiefs 32-28 in those two games.

It certainly appears that Denver has been closing the gap on its division rival, but after nine-straight division titles for KC, actions speak louder than words. The Broncos will aim to back up their talk on the field in 2025.

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Twitter dunks on Sean Payton for his comment about the Chiefs

Sean Payton implied the Broncos felt they would beat the Chiefs if they got past the Bills in the NFL playoffs. Here’s how fans reacted.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Had the Denver Broncos managed to upset the Buffalo Bills in the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs, coach Sean Payton seemingly thinks his squad could have also upset the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional round.

During his end-of-season press conference on Wednesday, Payton was asked how close the Broncos are to closing the gap between them and the AFC’s contenders.

“I’m telling you what, I didn’t see a gap last weekend until the second half,” Payton said. “Then you see a gap because you’re losing, but I felt really confident we could go in there, and play well and win. We obviously didn’t play well enough. Those lines are much finer than we think. I use that term, ‘There’s a fine line between a groove and a rut.’ It’s a player, it’s two players, it’s the line of scrimmage, it’s the kicking game. We’re not looking backwards; we’re looking ahead, and it starts with the division.

“There was a lot of confidence in this team that if we could get past that game, the next game we had to play, we felt real good about. Obviously, we’re still not there yet, and yet we’re a lot closer than we were at this time a year ago.” 

Payton has faced a lot of criticism for that remark on social media, with most of the trolling coming from Chiefs fans.

 

To be fair to Payton, the Chiefs would have been a much better matchup for the Broncos than the Bills.

Setting aside Denver’s blowout win over Kansas City’s backups in Week 18, the Chiefs won their previous game against the Broncos by blocking a last-second field goal. Before that, Denver and KC split the 2023 series 1-1 with the Broncos outscoring the Chiefs 32-28 in those two matchups in Payton’s first year on the job.

So, yes, talk about the Divisional round is a pointless hypothetical, but going forward, Denver certainly seems to be closing the gap on their division rival.

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Broncos’ division rival interviews Super Bowl-winning coach

Pete Carroll, who beat the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII, is a candidate for the Raiders’ head coach opening.

One of the Denver Broncos‘ division rivals are among the six NFL teams hiring a new head coach this offseason.

The Las Vegas Raiders are seeking a new coach after parting ways with Antonio Pierce following the 2024 season. One of the latest candidates to interview for the Raiders’ opening was Pete Carroll, according to ESPN.

Carroll, 73, coached the Seattle Seahawks from 2010-2023, going 137-89-1 in Seattle. He reached two Super Bowls with the Seahawks, including a convincing 43-8 victory over the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.

If the Raiders end up hiring Carroll, he will join an AFC West that already includes Andy Reid (Kansas City Chiefs), Sean Payton (Denver) and Jim Harbaugh (Los Angeles Chargers). Reid, Payton and Carroll have all won Super Bowls and Harbaugh reached Super Bowl XLVII with the San Francisco 49ers earlier in his career.

In addition to the Raiders, the Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints, Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Jets are also seeking coaches. The New England Patriots already filled their opening by hiring Mike Vrabel.

Las Vegas had an initial list of at least nine candidates, including Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph. It remains to be seen which candidate will emerge as the favorite for the Raiders job.

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Broncos HC Sean Payton comments on Chiefs potentially resting starters in Week 18

Denver #Broncos head coach Sean Payton comments on Kansas City #Chiefs potentially resting starters in Week 18 | @EdEastonJr

The Denver Broncos still need one victory to clinch a spot in the postseason, and they will have to defeat the AFC West division champions on Sunday. Denver head coach Sean Payton spoke with reporters on Monday, addressing his team’s overtime loss in Week 17 and looking ahead to possibly facing a resting Kansas City Chiefs squad on Sunday.

“I told (the team) after the game, I said, ‘This is part of it,” said Payton. “We don’t get to choose. You guys have seen the big sign when you enter that locker room area. You have to keep fighting.”

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid hinted that multiple players could miss the Week 18 regular-season finale. However, Payton focused on the game plan rather than the players on the field.

“I think you have to approach it like you’re seeing starters at these positions. I think you’re looking at the scheme relative to the game plan and then planning on seeing the player you’re watching on film,” said Payton. “If someone else is in that spot, then so be it.”

The Broncos clinch a playoff berth with a victory on Sunday or losses or ties from the Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals.