Tag Archives: Pete Carroll

Coaches, NFL Combine

‘Energized’ by new staff, Carroll has more than two years left

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Carroll at combineBy the time Seattle’s prospective new NHL team likely plays its first game in 2020, Pete Carroll should be a month into his third contract with the Seahawks.

Carroll, 66, has just two years left on his current deal, but it’s obvious he plans to coach beyond that. He reportedly told Paul Allen after the season that he is “all in” on flipping the Seahawks’ direction back toward the Super Bowl.

He wouldn’t have completely revamped the top of his coaching staff if he thought he was going to retire after the 2019 season. He wouldn’t have hired Brian Schottenheimer, Mike Solari and Ken Norton Jr. with the promise of only two years — “Hey, guys, come up to Seattle for a cup of coffee before you get kicked to the curb when I retire in 2020.”

No way. He knows he wants to keep going, and that’s why he switched up his staff. He needed new blood to keep his own boiling.

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Free agency, NFL Combine

Carroll talks Thomas, trades, tag and more

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Combine logo“Everybody’s talking to everybody” — Pete Carroll

That about sums up the state of affairs at the Combine, although Carroll was talking specifically about Earl Thomas there.

Carroll revealed very little about Seattle’s direction with contracts, trades and free agents, but he offered a few little nuggets.

Among the tidbits: He has talked to Thomas; John Schneider is talking to other teams about possible deals; the franchise tag is still an option for Sheldon Richardson; the team has talked to DeShawn Shead about playing safety again; Carroll has not talked to Michael Bennett; and Carroll would love to keep Jimmy Graham (and every free agent).

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Injury report, NFL Combine

Sherman, Carson, Fant expected to be ready

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Seahawks bandagesRichard Sherman is recovering from another Achilles surgery but expected to be ready for training camp, Chris Carson and George Fant are both on pace to return healthy and there are no new updates on Kam Chancellor, Cliff Avril or Malik McDowell.

Those were the major injury updates from Pete Carroll at the Combine today.

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Contracts, State of the team

Carroll, Wilson exchanging messages?

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Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson plan to be clapping about their offense a lot this season (Getty Images)Pete Carroll has sent his message, accused by some of power tripping, and now some insiders think Russell Wilson is using his own power play to deliver a message to the Seahawks.

Bob Condotta and Brock Huard, who both know a little something about the inner workings of the Seahawks, are inferring that Wilson’s orchestrated trade to the Yankees is meant as a reminder that Seattle needs to do all the right things to keep Wilson beyond the expiration of his contract in two years.

Quite obviously, this is not a threat to leave the Seahawks to play baseball. But Condotta and Huard think it is perhaps agent Mark Rodgers’ subtle way of reminding the Hawks that Wilson controls his destiny and destination.

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Coaches, NFL history, Super Bowl XLIX

Adjusted goal for Carroll: Do it better than anyone but Pats

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Belichick XLIXPete Carroll’s goal since he arrived in Seattle has been to “do it better than it’s ever been done.”

Sorry, Pete, but there’s only one team that has done that, and it’s headed to the Super Bowl again.

So Carroll and the Seahawks will have to content themselves with trying to do it better than anyone but the New England Patriots.

Bill Belichick and Tom Brady continue to prove they are the best coach-QB combo ever, now on to their eighth Super Bowl together and a cinch for Team of the 2010s as they go for their third win in four appearances this decade and sixth win overall. That’s doing it better than it has ever been done.

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On the air, The roster

Avril has timeline, but does it work for Hawks?

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Avril on NFLNCliff Avril’s timeline for a decision about his career appears to be late April, and he reiterated that his recovery from neck surgery is more about regaining quality of life than about playing football again.

“It’s such a long journey,” he told 710 ESPN on Wednesday, a day after he talked to NFL Network. “This is supposed to be a four-, five-, six-month type of thing. So, once I get to that five-month mark and I’m seeing how I’m feeling … I’ll sit down with my wife and we’ll have the discussion.”

One problem: The Seahawks might need to have the discussion sooner than that.

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Coaches, State of the team, X's & O's

Familiar enforcers will drive Carroll’s club

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Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson plan to be clapping about their offense a lot this season (Getty Images)After a steady three-year slide that ended with Seattle out of the playoffs this season, Pete Carroll apparently is ready to re-forge control of his team and re-establish his principles.

Carroll recently said he plans to make his team more disciplined while rejuvenating a once-strong running game that is the identity of the offense.

To do that, he needed some new voices in his coaching staff. So he reportedly is bringing in some familiar enforcers who will command players’ attention and be loyal to Carroll’s approach to winning.

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Coaches, State of the team

Report: Allen was ready to chase big names if Carroll retired

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Rams Carroll Sept. 13“People talking about retirement. I ain’t old enough to think about retiring.” — Pete Carroll

On the last game day of the season, Jay Glazer reported Pete Carroll was contemplating retirement. Carroll quickly shot down that report with the above quote, but it turns out there was a little more to it.

A week before the season ended, Paul Allen apparently asked Carroll what he was thinking, and Carroll assured his boss he was “all in” on building the Seahawks back up.

According to Davis Hsu, the sneakily sourced Seahawks Twitter champion, Allen was worried Carroll would retire and was ready to go “big game hunting” to replace him. If Carroll had said he was going to retire, Allen apparently would have gone after Jon Gruden, Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban.

Also, if Carroll had retired, John Schneider would have left for Green Bay, per Hsu. But Carroll wanted Schneider to stay with him, so Allen formally blocked the Packers from talking to Schneider.

Carroll, 66, is signed through 2019, and it’s possible he decides to retire after that. With the big coaching shakeup he has performed this week, he is either trying to finish strong or build up another five-year playoff run.

Coaches

What does Carroll see in Schottenheimer?

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SchottenheimerA lot of people are not happy about the Seahawks replacing an average offensive coordinator with an average offensive coordinator, but we’re going to have to look past the stats and project a bit to see why Pete Carroll and John Schneider reportedly are hiring Brian Schottenheimer to replace Darrell Bevell.

Schottenheimer is an underwhelming pick to a lot of fans because he has not had a lot of success. In nine seasons as OC of the Jets and Rams, he had only one top-10 scoring offense — Brett Favre led the Jets to ninth in 2008. His running game hasn’t been very good; outside of three straight top-10 years with the Jets (2008-10), it never ranked higher than 19th. And he has never orchestrated an offense that has ranked higher than 11th — seven of the nine ranked 20th or worse.

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Free agency, The roster

Looks like Hawks are letting Shead become a free agent

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DeShawn SheadThe Seahawks apparently have decided to allow DeShawn Shead to become a free agent, which means either they are just being nice (quite possible) or they prefer to keep Byron Maxwell instead.

In November, we wrote about Shead’s unusual case, pointing out the CBA empowered Seattle to toll his $1.2 million contract to 2018. After the season (and two games played), though, Shead told reporters he would soon know his free agency status and the team could forgo the toll if it chose.

On Friday, he posted a message indicating he is indeed going to be a free agent. (H/T to Field Gulls for spotting this.)

“Having a good time working out this offseason! It’s a blessing to be able to hit this grind healthy,” wrote Shead, who spent almost all of 2017 coming back from ACL surgery. “It’s surreal that I’m a free agent, but I’m excited to see what the future holds and where I will end up!”

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