6 questions from Pete Carroll's final presser as Seahawks head coach
Who is in charge, what role will Pete have, and what does it mean for Geno Smith? 1/10/2024
The Seattle Seahawks relieved Pete Carroll of his head coaching duties on Wednesday, which did not come as a relief to Pete based on his final press conference with the team…in that role. Carroll expressed a desire to continue to be the head coach and that he pitched Jody Allen and management on keeping him in that role, but the Seahawks have decided to go in a different direction.
How different? That remains unclear. There are many questions left based on Wednesday’s events. These are 6 takeaways/questions that I had from watching Pete Carroll’s last press conference as the Seahawks head coach.
What role will Pete Carroll have now?
He said he doesn’t know. It seems to me that this is all so new to Pete that he may have just asked if he could somehow be a part of the team as they see what happens with all of the players that Pete and John picked for the roster in the last two years. Guys like Devon Witherspoon, Ken Walker, Boye Mafe, Charles Cross, Abe Lucas…Seattle has turned over the roster with draft picks and it could be troubling to Pete that in his mind the Seahawks are already on a championship path but this move means he won’t be around when they hoist the Lombardi because of these decisions.
Pete mentioned that his favorite moment, obviously, was winning the Super Bowl and being on the stage for the ceremony, looking into the crowd to find his wife. He’s been chasing that feeling for the last 10 years and not come close since the you-know-what play.
Have you ever been broken up with and begged for a second chance, then you didn’t get it so you asked to be friends? That seems like the role that Pete Carroll might have right now.
How does this impact John Schneider?
Based on Pete’s comments, John Schneider will have more power with the Seahawks than he’s ever had before. He mentioned Schneider “waiting 14 years for this opportunity” so the role that Carroll had in helping Seattle pick players for the roster would seem to be transferring entirely over to John Schneider.
This could mean a monumental shift in how the Seahawks go about adding players this offseason. I have assumed that Pete is more conservative in his approach than going for a big splash—Seattle has traded for big name vets, but hesitates when it comes to trading up in the draft or drafting a quarterback—and this will certainly be how many perceive the change in direction for organizational personnel decisions.
Will the Seahawks be aggressive in their pursuit of a franchise quarterback in this offseason because of this move? Was this move made because Pete is so hesitant to draft a quarterback or replace Geno Smith?
Who will be the next head coach?
That’s up to John and Jody Allen and the people she chooses to advise the Seahawks in their search. Pete noted he has nothing to do with that decision, nor should he.
Something that’s been a throughline in the history of the Seahawks hiring head coaches is that they have a championship resume: Tom Flores (2x Super Bowl), Dennis Erickson (National Championship), Mike Holmgren (Super Bowl), Pete Carroll (National Championship).
Chuck Knox never made it to a Super Bowl but was a three-time Coach of the Year who had won a lot of games. Only Jack Patera and Jim Mora don’t fit the mold. (Patera coincidentally had a longtime connection to Vikings head coach Bud Grant, Pete’s mentor.)
(As I write this, Nick Saban has announced his retirement…)
The connection to Dan Quinn feels so easy, same as the assumption that Mike Vrabel’s just going into walk right into Gillette Stadium and take Bill Belichick’s job in New England. Do the Patriots and Seahawks want to have new identities or do they just want lesser-accomplished versions of the coaches they’re parting ways with?
Maybe that’s what the Seahawks sort of want, a version of Pete Carroll who isn’t Pete Carroll, someone who can keep things mostly the same but give a fresh perspective to the players who have tuned Pete out recently.
But there are a lot of intriguing names on the market, which may have been a catalyst towards Seattle making the decision now and not hesitating when the market could be worse off in 2025.
What will happen to Shane Waldron and Clint Hurtt?
They’ve been told that exploring other opportunities with other teams is perfectly okay. For what it’s worth this is not standard. Already today, the Raiders blocked a team from interviewing DC Patrick Graham and the Panthers blocked teams from interviewing DC Ejiro Evero, even though both of those organizations fired the head coach. If Graham or Evero get head coaching interviews, that’s different, but they aren’t currently being allowed to explore parrallel moves.
The Seahawks are okay with either Waldron or Hurtt leaving and that tells me that Waldron and Hurtt are leaving.
What does this mean for Geno Smith?
Pete was Geno’s biggest fan and I have to assume that this news is not good for Geno Smith.
Remember, there were not teams clamoring for Geno as a backup when he initially signed with the Seahawks. Geno was a free agent for a month with no bites prior to signing a one-year deal with Seattle in 2022. And after making the Pro Bowl and the playoffs, Geno Smith signed the worst contract of any QB in his same vicinity (Jimmy Garoppolo, Derek Carr), implying that his agent Chafie Fields was not expecting a competitive market…or he’s just not a good agent.
Pete is Geno’s biggest fan and even Pete would say that.
With more power going to John Schneider—who comes from a place we might as well call “Quarterback Quountry” after learning the ropes of Ted Thompson in Green Bay, the team that drafts the most QBs—the odds of the Seahawks drafting a quarterback in the first round this year have gone up considerably.
Whoever the next head coach is, he’s not going to be Pete Carroll. He’s going to be somebody who ends up falling in love with Geno, as Pete did, but this opens the possibility that it will be a coach who won’t. Or who wants to bring in his own guy and doesn’t want to hitch his wagon to a quarterback he didn’t select. OR it could be a coach, like Ben Johnson, who has done wonders for Jared Goff on the Lions, who will elevate Geno in a way that the last coaching staff could not.
How does this impact a team sale?
ProFootballTalk has speculated that the team is less likely to be sold (which could happen as soon as this May, but a sale is not necessary in the near future) now that they will be bringing on a new head coach. Would a coach want to take the job if he knew that there could be a new owner in six months? New ownership has fired coaches in Carolina, Denver, and Washington based on the three most recent sales.
But this is only speculative.
So in summary:
Good news: John Schneider, head coach candidates, Jody Allen keeping the team for now
Bad news: Pete Carroll, Shane Waldron, Clint Hurtt, Geno Smith (depending on who the next coach is)
After an evening to think about it. I think Kenneth is absolutely right when he points out that likely boiled down to an argument about quarterbacks. Over the years reporting has come out that John was actively trying to find the next generational quarterback. It was reported that he wanted to trade up to get Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. Last year the Seahawks were in the position to trade up and get a QB. As Kenneth pointed out, the Seahawks could have, with less long-term pain offered the same or better deal than Carolina ultimately did to Chicago. My belief is Pete likely nixed that deal. Now if JOHN wanted to spend all that draft to take Young - Pete would look extremely smart. But if John wanted CJ Stroud then Seattle has passed on three franchise QBs. CJ is a John kind of QB cause he can throw the ball like very few in the NFL). How things played also backs this up. This is not to say that Pete wasn’t open to taking a quarterback. I suspect that Richardson was Pete’s compromise quarterback. Pete wants to run the ball and running consistently in the NFL requires a running QB. But the Colts took Richardson, and Pete got the player he really wanted. I think the player they got is a future All Pro but that is not going to win a championship.
I was sure they were going to keep Pete, but in hindsight, the signs were there. John wasn’t at the end of the year press conference. Peter King reported about a day before the firing that the Seahawks were trying to move up. I took that speculation, because it just didn’t sound like something Pete would do. But now I think it was what Peter was hearing from others.
I suspect that this began with giving John complete player control and Pete fought back. Over Monday and Tuesday I believe they had the same argument that many of us have had here about going all in for a franchise QB to build around or building a team. Pete competed but he didn’t win, John did. And Kenneth is absolutely right that the Seahawks went from being Pete’s team to being John’s. John went from being one of the least powerful GMs to one of the most powerful. That shape the Seahawks for the foreseeable future.
As an old white guy who loved Pete and his old school style of football- strong, punishing defense combined with balanced offense I’m hoping for something unusual from the Seahawks this time. I hope they find a young, energetic, positive African American coach. The league is dominated by African American players, but very few African American head coaches. Let’s put another crack in that glass ceiling. Maybe Jody can find a woman to add to the coaching team for good measure. Prove that an organization that won with a “fun” coach can also win with someone other than the usual boring white guy.
I know we’re just supposed to care about the wins and losses, but I don’t. I wished for another SB win, but never to trade Pete’s positivity for Bellicheck’s gloomy persona. I want the Hawks to be a franchise that young, talented men want to play for and I think many of those guys would relish the chance to play for an African American coach. Having said that, please not coach Prime!