While three Head Coaches were sent packing in the NFL yesterday, Pete Carrol of the Seahawks was not one of them. The fact that he is in line to carry on in Seattle comes as no surprise to him, either. According to a report from NFL.com’s Kevin Patra, Carrol is not concerned about his job status. 
When asked about his future with the team, the 70-year-old responded, “I’m in great shape”. The reasons why the Seahawks went a disappointing 7-10 in 2021 will be the main focus of a meeting between Carroll and other staff members and owner Jody Allen in the near future. The outcome of that meeting, according to Pata’s colleague Ian Rapoport, will determine whether or not the team is willing to “give it another go”, or if Allen “will have the first big decision of her ownership to make”.
Carroll is looking forward to getting on the same page with ownership, stating that the meeting will be “really pointed at figuring things out. [Allen’s] very analytical and she wants to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can possibly do to get everything right. She’s a terrifically competitive person in that regard and she doesn’t want any stone unturned… So we’ll try to do a great job of exchanging the information and setting the course for making sure that we give ourselves the best chance to be champions”.
Of course, the biggest storyline for the offseason in Seattle revolves around the future of quarterback Russell Wilson. It was recently reported that the team intends to keep Wilson, despite longstanding speculation that he would either request a trade or a coaching change. Instead, it appears the team will maintain the status quo in 2022, looking to rebound from the worst season in both Carroll’s and Wilson’s tenure in Seattle.
One down season in the last decade, in which there were utilizing a new OC who has never held the role AND a injured franchise QB. It would be stupid to fire Pete.
Pete looked a bit lost on the sidelines this year for the first time. I think he should retire while or kick himself upstairs while he’s still relatively on top of his game. From being one of the best coaches in the league, Pete Carroll seems to have become mid-tier.
Trading away Russell Wilson while he retains value and starting a rebuild from the ground up would also make sense to me. Without big changes, the Seahawks are a good team who will gradually get worse. 8-9, 9-8 are in reach. Is that what Seattle wants?
And replace him with what? Finding a franchise qb not easy. All you are going to get is draft picks..no money saving since cap hit us so high.
The team has about 50 million cap space now to spend. Can add pieces with that.
Isn’t a lot of that 50 million going to go toward re-signing or replacing like half a dozen starters from this year’s team?
Right now cap space is at 59 million…yes like any team looking at their free agents. Fo have some choices to make…but even after that will have money left to fill holes.
“Like any team looking at their free agents” Not every team has both its starting tackles and two starters in the secondary hitting free agency, including two of the best ten players on the whole team. I don’t know what kind of pieces they’ll still be able to add after re-signing or replacing those guys.
Oooof- I assume your 2 tackles and 2 secondary comment is referring to 35 yr old LT Duane Brown who for the majority of the season was THE 2nd worst LT in all of the NFL. He improved 2nd half but he still had his worst PFF grade since his Rookie season. The other T: Brandon Shell played only 10g this season. PFF gave him a (below avg) 67.6 grade. 48th out of 85 Tackles.
The Seahawks will almost certainly be encouraged by Big D-Brown’s 2nd half play but he will not get more than a 1yr contract. If the Hawks do resign Shell (I hope not,) he will be lucky to get 2 years guaranteed. The Hawks did however get surprisingly good play down the stretch from UDFA Rookie J Curhan, 2019 4th rd pick Phil Hayes and even Center E Pocic! R Penny may not have been rushing against elite Run-D’s. However his 190 yds rushing/8.7ypc avg (8.7!!!!) against AZ was impressive. You can’t help but be excited by the younger OL contributions over Penny’s breakout (pun intended) 5 game run. Plus Damien Lewis was hurt most of the yr- he’s a mauler. So- they already have some young exciting cost controlled pieces to balance any FA spending.
While re-signing DJ Reed will certainly be the most expensive FA due to his young age and his surprisingly good play this year, it will not take nearly as much to sign the other CB, Sidney Jones.
I really hope they make DJ Reed a priority this yr- honestly, he would be my first signing before I upgraded the OL. The 5 sacks vs AZ were in part due to some excellent coverage by the secondary. His opponent Passing grades when targeted were ridiculously low in 2021. He was actually the 10th best CB (by PFF) in the NFL.
Even if those guys weren’t great at tackle, coming up with two starting tackles is very difficult or very expensive when you don’t have a first round pick. And you didn’t mention Diggs.
As far as I’m concerned- You’re ‘preaching to the choir’ – I’ve ALWAYS wondered why PC/JS’s Hawks have spent so little on the OL esp since so many of their OL draft picks failed. That’s a whole other discussion too! Who targets the OL position in the Draft? Is it mostly John? 60/40 50/50 Mostly Pete? I’d love to know. So- how can they improve that?
You say adding “two starting T’s is very difficult or very expensive when you don’t have a first rd pick” – while I agree with your general premise, I’d like to add 2 things: 1) the 2022 NFL draft is going to be loaded with OT’s. Not only is the position deep but it’s ridiculously talented. 2) If you look at the past 5 NFL drafts you will see that on average only 4 OT’s have gone off the board in the 1st rd of the drafts. There have been an avg of 21 OT’s drafted in rds 1-7 of the past 5 drafts. There should still be quality OT’s at the Hawks 41st pick this yr.
Maybe Miss State’s Charles Cross will still be there? Surely one of Trevor Penning, Cody Ford or Darrian Kinnard will still be around at 41.
The Seahawks will have $9M of rollover to add to the $53.4M cap space available giving them $62.4 M to fill out their roster. Not saying they should but If they release Bobby Wagner that $62.4 figure then goes up to almost $80M available. Jason Meyers cap space is $5M! I hope they extend DK Metcalf and or restructure Wagner’s contract. There’s plenty of room to make the 2022 roster a dynamic team who can take advantage of a (4th place teams) 2022 schedule.
Oh! And…We currently have significantly more cap space than each of our NFC West rivals-before rollover) AZ has $18.8M SF $11.2M and the Rams are ‘in the red’ w a negative cap space of roughly 700,000.
I get your point man, I just don’t think it’s all doom and gloom.
All of that is fair, though I doubt Cross will be around in round 2. But they sure have their work cut out for them!
@HawkTattoo- Carroll pointed out on 710 yesterday that the $50M in cap space is going to dwindle quickly because they have a lot of players to re-sign.
I agree money will go fast and desicions made..but this all started with trading Russ and and do a complete rebuild. Trading Russ will getvus draft picks but are we willing to go back to searching for qb…not a great qb draft. With the money we do have options.
Russ is starting to show wear and tear. Either sell him now to a franchise in win-now mode short a quarterback or lose the opportunity to ever made an advantageous trade.
The Seahawks can’t do much better than .500 with the current crew (outstanding team, outstanding run). Every show must come to an end. It’s rebuild time, whether Pete Carroll recognises it or not. That Carroll doesn’t recognise that it’s time for a rebuild is part of the problem.
I mean Brian Flores was beloved by his players, had two straight winning seasons with a so-so roster, has a (hopefully) franchise QB with Tua, yet was still fired after a 7 game winning streak so… crazy things have happened.
It doesn’t sound like he was that beloved.
Peter is archaic at this point. They haven’t made an NFC Championship in 7 straight seasons now. How long does he get to live off the 2013-14 glory?
Been coach since 2010…only missed playoffs three times in 12 years. I think almost team would take a run like that..stability and in the hunt every year.
Unless he has lost team control there is no reason to let him go. The options for a new coach are not teal good.
Thanks
He can stay on one condition: he finds an OC that isn’t boring as hell.
Carroll’s mindset is run balanced offense. This is the product you’ll get regardless of who is calling plays.
I think this season reflected just how much Wilson has been propping up the team. Not that anyone can be expected to win games with Geno Smith, but the defense is bottom 10.
It’s hard to evaluate Carroll independently of Schneider and the roster building at this point, right? The offensive line has never really been shored up, the pass rush has been a problem for a while now, and the secondary has bled talent to the point where there’s nothing left but Adams, who cost vastly too much, and Diggs, who they only got because of Matt Patricia’s buffoonery. Their draft hits are far outnumbered by misses, traded picks, and overdrafts in recent years.
Defense rly picked it up, look at POINTS allowed, at the end of the day, yrds allowed don’t matter
They gave up 29 POINTS to the Lions in the second to last week.
They were statistically a top 5 defense from week 6 on or something like that.
What statistic(s) are you using?
Points per game, points per drive, touchdowns per game, and touchdowns per drive. They ranked 4th or better at each in the entire league from week 6 on, according to Sports Illustrated.
With a few cupcakes on the schedule.
Ooof- I swear I’m not picking on you or being argumentative! Haha. I just like to see things from both sides of the discussion and try to remain open minded. You make a good point re: the D, and the previous points in our exchange above, however! Let’s not forget that same DET team beat AZ and GB the wk after putting 29 up on that banged up Hawks D. I mean, how crazy is that!? With an absolute rubbish QB but St. Brown kid is electric tho.
Remember, our defense was without its Capt and main play caller. Although he’s been disappointing we were also w/o our All-Pro Safety and a Top 10 CB in DJ Reed. (Only just! Haha, still the 10th rated CB tho) If we Re-sign R. Green, Woods (thigh arms!) and Mone, maybe another FA stud edge rusher together with a fully healthy D-Line- that will help the Pass D next yr.
Our run D has been stout and that will help in the 2 games v SF next yr. To your point dude- That pass D is garbage at times but isn’t Josh Jones something like the 7th CB listed? He made some nice plays but his inexperience showed on other plays.
Why would you be worried if you had a job that paid you your full salary to stay home?
There is a contingency of Seahawk fans that have never embraced “California” Pete and his QB. They are jealous that they did what Holmgren and Hasselbeck couldn’t do…win the Super Bowl. Seattle was two wins from being a playoff team. They were 1-3 with Smith starting losing three games by a combined 15 points. Wilson also played hurt for a month after he came back. This a roster that swept the 49ers and beat the tar out of Arizona. They play in the only division that sent three teams to the playoffs. Why aren’t these same people calling for Jackson to be traded for a handful of draft picks and John Harbaugh to be fired because the Ravens missed the playoffs? Haters gonna hate.