Mailbag: Who could Carroll target at offensive and defensive coordinator?

Returning Raider Nation’s questions for the week.

It was a busy week in the offseason for the Las Vegas Raiders as John Spytek was named general manager shortly before Pete Carroll filled the head coach vacancy. Now, the next step is to fill out the rest of the coaching staff, including the offensive and defensive coordinators, which is the focus of this week’s mailbag.

Q: Who could be young up-and-coming candidates, with or without prior connection to Carroll, for both coordinator spots? Please don’t hire Gus Bradley.

A: The guy I’d like to see the Raiders go after as offensive coordinator is Bobby Slowik. He’s someone I thought might be in consideration for the head coach job since he was getting interviews at this time last year, and I think the Texans overreacted by firing him.

Slowik had a lot of success working with C.J. Stroud as a rookie, comes from the Shanahan/McVay coaching tree and could be the coach Carroll molds to eventually take over. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any direct connections to Carroll, but Carroll’s last OC hire in Seattle was Shane Waldron, who also stems from the Shanahan/McVay tree.

Defensively, I don’t think you have to worry too much about Bradley, lol. While Bradley does have ties to Carroll, the Seahawks started running more of a Vic Fangio-style defense at the end of Carroll’s tenure. A couple of names to look out for are Clint Hurtt and Sean Desai

After working for Fangio in Chicago, Hurtt was the DC in Seattle during the 2022 and 2023 campaigns and currently is the Eagles’ defensive line coach. Desai also worked for Fangio with the Bears and spent 2023 as the DC in Philly. That didn’t work out but he was Carroll’s assistant head coach in 2022 and could get a second chance at calling the defense in Las Vegas.

Q: If a quarterback doesn’t fall and the Raiders go offense, do you think using the sixth pick on Ashton Jeanty is a good idea, or given the depth of this RB class or would Tetairoa McMillan be a smarter option if they’re both available?

Photo by Bruce Yeung/Getty Images

A: Between those two options, I’d lean toward McMillan. I worry about how much tread Jeanty has left after getting 830 touches in three years at Boise State, so I think the wideout would be a better long-term option. With a top-10, nearly top-five pick, I’d prefer to have someone who has more future value and McMillan is an excellent receiver in a thin class at the position while running back is a deep position group.

Q: Do you believe it is in the Raiders’ best interest this year to prioritize signing their own free agents to maintain continuity, sign other teams’ free agents on the market to fill existing gaps on the team, or use their cap assets equally between their own free agents and those from other teams?

A: I’d definitely prioritize re-signing Tre’von Moehrig and would like to see Malcolm Koonce get a short-term “prove-it” type of deal. Nate Hobbs would be next in line for me, but his recent injury history gives me some pause. Outside of those three and maybe Robert Spillane, it’d be better to target other team’s free agents to help fill the holes on the roster.

A: I believe Bill brought that up because he saw my tweet about it, lol. So, yes, I’d be interested in bringing Kyle Trask in to at least compete for the starting job.

Unfortunately, he barely has any regular-season experience after playing behind Tom Brady and Baker Mayfield. But I’m planning on diving into some preseason tape on Kyle Trask soon—and will have an article on it—to get an idea of what he could bring to the table.

Trask shouldn’t be anointed the starting job, but he could be a cheap option to kick the tires on in a weak free agent and draft class.

A: I did a deeper dive into this a few days ago, looking into John Spytek’s history at acquiring quarterbacks. He’s used the draft and free agency to address the position in the past and has had more success with free agents. So, I think Spytek will probably take a flier on someone like Trask in free agency and prioritize filling out the rest of the roster in the draft unless Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders falls to No. 6.

Anytime the team needs a quarterback, the general manager has to at least address the position to give the team a chance to win because the position is just too important. It doesn’t have to be a long-term commitment right away, but completely ignoring the need would be malpractice.

With that, I wouldn’t be surprised if Spytek ends up drafting a project quarterback in the second or third round either, assuming he doesn’t take Ward or Sanders first.

Q: Who is primarily responsible for calling out offensive line coverages at the line of scrimmage, quarterback or center? The Raiders seem to have an inordinate number of free defenders rushing in all the time. Shouldn’t the quarterback be audibling to another play and the center changing the line assignments? Is Andre James the problem or Gardner Minshew?

A: It depends on the offense and personnel. Usually, with a young quarterback and an experienced center, the center will take control of calling out the protections to give the quarterback one less thing to worry about. Then when the QB gets more experience, he can take on the responsibility.

With the Raiders last season, it’s tough to say since they had three different starting quarterbacks and two starters at center. However, I will say that the line seemed to have better communication and be on the same page more often when Jackson Powers-Johnson took over…

Q: Can you compile a list of former players, coaches and executives of the Raiders whose salaries are still on the books and how much money they are owed?

A: According to Over the Cap, Las Vegas has dead money tied three players next season; Davante Adams ($15.7 million), Jimmy Garoppolo ($12.8 million) and Byron Young ($560k). Coaches’ and executives’ contracts don’t get disclosed so I don’t have hard numbers for them.

That’ll do it for this week’s mailbag. Thank you all for submitting questions and, as your weekly reminder, if you’d like to have your questions answered in a future column, tweet them at me, @MHolder95, email them to [email protected] or look for our weekly call for questions on the site. The latter will continue to publish on Thursdays.