PALM BEACH, Fla. — Owner Mark Davis and the Raiders are starting over for the third time in four years.

Pete Carroll, who excels at rebuilding programs, was hired as coach. The new general manager is John Spytek, who gets his first chance to run a team after working as an understudy with the Broncos, Eagles and Buccaneers.

Carroll and Spytek bring new ideas and a fresh vision. They talk about building a new culture that breeds winning and sustainability.

In short, they want to succeed where so many before them have failed.

Davis, since assuming control of the Raiders after his father’s death in 2011, has hired eight head coaches and six general managers, including interim coaches and GMs. He believed the right men were in place to return the Raiders to glory and build a sustainable future.

“To have continuity with somebody you trust,” Davis said at the NFL owners meetings.

Only to have to abort within a few years. This includes reluctantly parting ways with Jon Gruden, the established football mind for whom Davis built a 10-year, $100 million runway, after a slew of disparaging emails Gruden sent a decade before were made public.

The Gruden saga was especially frustrating for Davis. Just when he thought he had the right leader in place, he was abruptly forced to make a change.

Neither of Gruden’s successors worked out for varying reasons. Josh McDaniels was better suited as an offensive coordinator than a head coach. Antonio Pierce was not ready to be an NFL head coach. The general managers by their side — Dave Ziegler and Tom Telesco, respectively — got caught in the turbulent tides.

Davis makes no excuses.

“I just didn’t get it right. That’s all there is to it,” he said.

But he also does not make excuses for abruptly changing course. As difficult as it was to admit he had made the wrong choices — and start over again — the damage that would have been done by stubbornly holding on would have been far worse.

“Rather than just kind of see it out, I just decided I wanted to rip the Band-Aid off and get it right,” Davis said.

Enter a new regime

Carroll and Spytek are now in charge. But it would be a mistake not to include Tom Brady, a minority owner who is essentially serving as Davis’ president of football operations.

Brady tabbed Spytek as the general manager. The two friends have a relationship that dates to their days as Michigan football teammates and as cohorts in Brady’s Super Bowl push with the Buccaneers.

And it was Brady’s presence that attracted Carroll to the Raiders.

The three are now entrusted with restoring order to a team that has had only two winning records in the past 21 seasons. After the recent failures, Davis is less about ultimatums and more about the Raiders taking positive steps forward.

“Timeline? No,” Davis said about the urgency of winning immediately. “Progress? Yes.”

A dose of reality never hurts.

“You always want to compete. But you have to be honest,” Davis said. “Are we going to win the Super Bowl this year? I don’t know. Possible.”

Looking back on Pierce

Davis always knew there was a learning curve with Pierce, who was promoted from linebackers coach to interim head coach when McDaniels was fired Oct. 31, 2023.

At the time, Davis was not sure he would stick with Pierce. But after he led the Raiders to a 5-4 record, including a road win over the Chiefs on Christmas Day, Davis felt compelled to give Pierce a chance to be the permanent coach.

“He earned the job the year before. He really did,” Davis said. “He was trying to build something.”

But with no practical experience as a coordinator or head coach, Pierce would need time to chart his course. Would he be a scheme-driven coach or an overseer leader who delegated X’s and O’s to others?

Or, as Davis put it: “To determine what kind of coach he is and what he needs around him.”

To help facilitate that, Davis gave Pierce the power to build as he saw fit.

“To choose his staff and his coaches. Choose everybody,” Davis said. “It was his ability to build what he wanted to build.”

But as the season progressed and the losses piled up, Davis began to have an uneasy feeling.

“I just didn’t think it was going in the right direction,” he said. “So, got to make a change. Again. And it hurts because there are families involved. There are people’s lives and everything else.”

Free-agent losses

As is Davis’ custom, he entrusts Carroll, Spytek and Brady with the football decisions. That included opting not to enter a bidding war to retain defensive starters Tre’von Moehrig, Robert Spillane, Nate Hobbs and Divine Deablo.

“It hurts to lose your own, depending on what you’re trying to build and everything else,” Davis said. “The evaluation process that John and Pete went through, they decided which way they were going to focus.”

That includes approval of the decision to trade for quarterback Geno Smith.

“For me, it’s giving them the ability to do what they want to do,” Davis said. “I’ll grill and everything, play devil’s advocate the whole time, and just make sure.”

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at [email protected]. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.