Following his first season as an NFL general manager, John Spytek took centerstage Monday as he begins shaping one of the Raiders’ most pivotal offseasons in years.
After a season of injuries, coaching staff changes and growing pains that resulted in a 10-game losing streak and a 3-14 record, the team announced that Pete Carroll was relieved of his duties.
“He was a great partner,” Spytek said of Carroll. “In my first year in this job, he worked tirelessly to give Raider Nation the team and the outcomes and the results that they wanted and deserve. He was a wonderful person to deal with, for me, personally, on a day-to-day basis, and I’m just very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him, a great coach like him, for a year. And this organization, the ownership, myself, wish him nothing but the best in the future. We’re truly grateful for his efforts.
Spytek didn’t shy away from what went wrong and took ownership of many of the season’s shortcomings, but with that chapter now closed, he’s shifting his focus to what comes next.
“This isn’t on any one person, and really, I don’t want anyone to think that anyone deserves more responsibility than me and that it’s something I’m very aware of,” he said. “I think about all the time and am determined to get right. The accountability should start and stop with me, and that needs to be said.”
