The Athletic: Why We Moved On From Pete
Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2024 6:44 pm
My turn to post an article from The Athletic. It's a long one, which is why I started a new thread. But IMO it's spot on.
The Pete Carroll era is over. Here’s why the Seahawks moved on after 14 years
By Michael-Shawn Dugar Jan 11, 2024
RENTON, Wash. — Pete Carroll is no longer the coach of the Seattle Seahawks because, as he became further removed from the team’s glory days, it seemed less and less likely that the franchise would return to power under his leadership.
Carroll is no longer overseeing Seattle’s offense because, over the years, that side of the ball has failed to carry out his vision of owning the line of scrimmage, establishing the run and forming an identity, despite changing quarterbacks, play callers and assistant coaches.
Carroll is no longer responsible for the Seahawks’ defense because that unit has spent the last six seasons finding new ways to be inept, becoming nearly unrecognizable when compared to the Legion of Boom era. In some years, it lacked a pass rush. In other years, it couldn’t limit explosive plays. For the last two seasons, the run defense was nonexistent. The coordinators changed. The players changed. The scheme changed. The results did not.
But Carroll didn’t lose the role he assumed for 14 years because his philosophy was outdated. Closing the circle of toughness, doing right longer than the opponent, competing every day and empowering players and coaches to be the best versions of themselves are all principles that most football coaches believe in.
Carroll is no longer running the franchise with which he won a championship because those things he preached from Monday through Saturday stopped translating to Sundays.
During a 33-minute news conference at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center on Wednesday afternoon, Carroll declined to dive into the specifics of the conversations that led to the organization’s decision to move him from head coach and vice president of football operations to an advisory position. Carroll mutually agreed to the decision after his year-end meetings, which included discussions with general manager John Schneider and team owner Jody Allen.
“There’s a lot that went into that, a lot that went behind that,” Carroll said in front of an audience that included dozens of team employees, a handful of front-office staffers, several veteran players — Geno Smith, Bobby Wagner, Tyler Lockett and Quandre Diggs among them — and, of course, Schneider, who will lead the search for the team’s new coach.
“This is a good move for them,” Carroll said. “Johnny’s going to take this thing, take the bull by the horns and roll. I’m so thankful that I get to see him take that next step and watch what he does with it. He’s going to kick butt.”
Carroll didn’t need to give details as to what went into the decision (Schneider might do so in the news conference he has scheduled for Tuesday). The breadcrumbs had slowly started to drop over the last few seasons.
The Seahawks had spent years avoiding being blown out, particularly at home, but in recent seasons, the lopsided losses started to pile up. The Russell Wilson saga was an example of a star player and team captain not being totally bought into the offensive vision. And Wilson wasn’t alone in that thought.
During the past two seasons, Seattle’s defensive players didn’t appear to be believers in the messaging being delivered by their coaches. Seattle’s tackling techniques were once used as teach tape for the rest of the league, and yet they spent the most important stretch of this season struggling to get guys on the ground.
Beyond the schematics, Carroll took blame for his team being unprepared. He admitted to the Seahawks feeling an emotional hangover from the victory over Wilson’s Broncos in the 2022 season opener, which bled into the next week when they were blown out by the 49ers. After a Thanksgiving loss against the 49ers this season, when the team was again uncompetitive versus a division rival, he admitted to not having his team prepared on a short week.
Moments after the Seahawks learned Sunday that their season was over despite beating the Cardinals, half of his locker room was distraught, while the other half smoked celebratory cigars. The disconnect spoke to a locker room that wasn’t collectively on the same page.
“It was time,” a former player said of Carroll’s transition out of his head coach role.
That was a common sentiment expressed by a handful of players and coaches after the team’s announcement Wednesday afternoon. The Seahawks want to routinely contend for championships. Because they weren’t doing that and weren’t trending in the right direction, some people weren’t at all surprised by the move. This was always an option, either this offseason or next.
“We lost our edge, really,” Carroll said. “The edge to be great, which was really how we ran the football and how we played defense. It wasn’t as good as it needed to be.”
Asked if he had any regrets, Carroll said, “Heck yeah.” He mentioned Seattle’s narrow losses to the Rams in Week 11 and the Cowboys in Week 13. In both games, Seattle had the ball late in the fourth quarter with a chance to win. Jason Myers missed a field goal that would have beaten the Rams, and Seattle’s offense turned the ball over on downs on back-to-back fourth-quarter drives against the Cowboys. The Seahawks went 6-4 in one-possession games this season and missed the playoffs by one game.
“As a coach, there’s not enough wins,” Carroll said. “We know right now there’s not enough wins this season. And it’s a big challenge about doing this work.”
Seattle needed to win its Week 18 game and get a Bears victory against the Packers to sneak into the playoffs as the final wild-card team. The Seahawks beat the Cardinals 21-20. The Bears lost 17-9.
Carroll was asked Wednesday whether he thought a Chicago victory would have prevented him from being in this position.
“Not today,” he joked before leaving the podium to a round of applause.
There’s likely some truth to that sentiment, though.
Sneaking into the playoffs with a 9-8 record in consecutive seasons isn’t the mark of a team on the cusp of competing for a championship. Had the Seahawks made the playoffs and played hard in another road loss to the Cowboys — or beaten them before losing to the 49ers in the divisional round — then there’s a chance the same news conference Carroll held Wednesday would have just been delayed by a week or two. Barring a miraculous run to the conference title game, it would have been hard for the powers that be to maintain the status quo and expect a championship in 2024.
The Seahawks have long been built in Carroll’s image, and although he and Schneider have always been in lockstep, Schneider now has the power to really shake things up. Will he hit the reset button, both along the roster and the coaching staff, jettisoning longtime veterans and perhaps even the quarterback? Will he try to keep the core intact, hire a coach who believes in Carroll’s vision and merely make a few tweaks to reestablish Seattle as a contender? How much will Allen be involved, if at all? The next steps will shape the future of the franchise.
Carroll also made the audience laugh when he responded to a question seeking his advice for whoever is chosen as his successor.
“You want me to tell the next guy how to win?” Carroll said with a smile. “It wouldn’t matter, whether it’s football or whatever. To me, the essence of being as good as you can be is you have to figure out who you are. You have to figure out that and (give) relentless effort to try and get clear about what’s important to you, what uncompromising principles do you stand by, what makes you who you are.
“If you don’t go through that process, you don’t do that self-discovery, you don’t have an opportunity to be your best because you don’t know who you are yet.”
Carroll knows who he is, which principles he values most and what brand of football he’d like to play. But that wasn’t consistently reflected by the team he put on the field. For that reason, he is no longer the coach of the Seahawks.
https://theathletic.com/5194305/2024/01 ... coach-out/
The Pete Carroll era is over. Here’s why the Seahawks moved on after 14 years
By Michael-Shawn Dugar Jan 11, 2024
RENTON, Wash. — Pete Carroll is no longer the coach of the Seattle Seahawks because, as he became further removed from the team’s glory days, it seemed less and less likely that the franchise would return to power under his leadership.
Carroll is no longer overseeing Seattle’s offense because, over the years, that side of the ball has failed to carry out his vision of owning the line of scrimmage, establishing the run and forming an identity, despite changing quarterbacks, play callers and assistant coaches.
Carroll is no longer responsible for the Seahawks’ defense because that unit has spent the last six seasons finding new ways to be inept, becoming nearly unrecognizable when compared to the Legion of Boom era. In some years, it lacked a pass rush. In other years, it couldn’t limit explosive plays. For the last two seasons, the run defense was nonexistent. The coordinators changed. The players changed. The scheme changed. The results did not.
But Carroll didn’t lose the role he assumed for 14 years because his philosophy was outdated. Closing the circle of toughness, doing right longer than the opponent, competing every day and empowering players and coaches to be the best versions of themselves are all principles that most football coaches believe in.
Carroll is no longer running the franchise with which he won a championship because those things he preached from Monday through Saturday stopped translating to Sundays.
During a 33-minute news conference at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center on Wednesday afternoon, Carroll declined to dive into the specifics of the conversations that led to the organization’s decision to move him from head coach and vice president of football operations to an advisory position. Carroll mutually agreed to the decision after his year-end meetings, which included discussions with general manager John Schneider and team owner Jody Allen.
“There’s a lot that went into that, a lot that went behind that,” Carroll said in front of an audience that included dozens of team employees, a handful of front-office staffers, several veteran players — Geno Smith, Bobby Wagner, Tyler Lockett and Quandre Diggs among them — and, of course, Schneider, who will lead the search for the team’s new coach.
“This is a good move for them,” Carroll said. “Johnny’s going to take this thing, take the bull by the horns and roll. I’m so thankful that I get to see him take that next step and watch what he does with it. He’s going to kick butt.”
Carroll didn’t need to give details as to what went into the decision (Schneider might do so in the news conference he has scheduled for Tuesday). The breadcrumbs had slowly started to drop over the last few seasons.
The Seahawks had spent years avoiding being blown out, particularly at home, but in recent seasons, the lopsided losses started to pile up. The Russell Wilson saga was an example of a star player and team captain not being totally bought into the offensive vision. And Wilson wasn’t alone in that thought.
During the past two seasons, Seattle’s defensive players didn’t appear to be believers in the messaging being delivered by their coaches. Seattle’s tackling techniques were once used as teach tape for the rest of the league, and yet they spent the most important stretch of this season struggling to get guys on the ground.
Beyond the schematics, Carroll took blame for his team being unprepared. He admitted to the Seahawks feeling an emotional hangover from the victory over Wilson’s Broncos in the 2022 season opener, which bled into the next week when they were blown out by the 49ers. After a Thanksgiving loss against the 49ers this season, when the team was again uncompetitive versus a division rival, he admitted to not having his team prepared on a short week.
Moments after the Seahawks learned Sunday that their season was over despite beating the Cardinals, half of his locker room was distraught, while the other half smoked celebratory cigars. The disconnect spoke to a locker room that wasn’t collectively on the same page.
“It was time,” a former player said of Carroll’s transition out of his head coach role.
That was a common sentiment expressed by a handful of players and coaches after the team’s announcement Wednesday afternoon. The Seahawks want to routinely contend for championships. Because they weren’t doing that and weren’t trending in the right direction, some people weren’t at all surprised by the move. This was always an option, either this offseason or next.
“We lost our edge, really,” Carroll said. “The edge to be great, which was really how we ran the football and how we played defense. It wasn’t as good as it needed to be.”
Asked if he had any regrets, Carroll said, “Heck yeah.” He mentioned Seattle’s narrow losses to the Rams in Week 11 and the Cowboys in Week 13. In both games, Seattle had the ball late in the fourth quarter with a chance to win. Jason Myers missed a field goal that would have beaten the Rams, and Seattle’s offense turned the ball over on downs on back-to-back fourth-quarter drives against the Cowboys. The Seahawks went 6-4 in one-possession games this season and missed the playoffs by one game.
“As a coach, there’s not enough wins,” Carroll said. “We know right now there’s not enough wins this season. And it’s a big challenge about doing this work.”
Seattle needed to win its Week 18 game and get a Bears victory against the Packers to sneak into the playoffs as the final wild-card team. The Seahawks beat the Cardinals 21-20. The Bears lost 17-9.
Carroll was asked Wednesday whether he thought a Chicago victory would have prevented him from being in this position.
“Not today,” he joked before leaving the podium to a round of applause.
There’s likely some truth to that sentiment, though.
Sneaking into the playoffs with a 9-8 record in consecutive seasons isn’t the mark of a team on the cusp of competing for a championship. Had the Seahawks made the playoffs and played hard in another road loss to the Cowboys — or beaten them before losing to the 49ers in the divisional round — then there’s a chance the same news conference Carroll held Wednesday would have just been delayed by a week or two. Barring a miraculous run to the conference title game, it would have been hard for the powers that be to maintain the status quo and expect a championship in 2024.
The Seahawks have long been built in Carroll’s image, and although he and Schneider have always been in lockstep, Schneider now has the power to really shake things up. Will he hit the reset button, both along the roster and the coaching staff, jettisoning longtime veterans and perhaps even the quarterback? Will he try to keep the core intact, hire a coach who believes in Carroll’s vision and merely make a few tweaks to reestablish Seattle as a contender? How much will Allen be involved, if at all? The next steps will shape the future of the franchise.
Carroll also made the audience laugh when he responded to a question seeking his advice for whoever is chosen as his successor.
“You want me to tell the next guy how to win?” Carroll said with a smile. “It wouldn’t matter, whether it’s football or whatever. To me, the essence of being as good as you can be is you have to figure out who you are. You have to figure out that and (give) relentless effort to try and get clear about what’s important to you, what uncompromising principles do you stand by, what makes you who you are.
“If you don’t go through that process, you don’t do that self-discovery, you don’t have an opportunity to be your best because you don’t know who you are yet.”
Carroll knows who he is, which principles he values most and what brand of football he’d like to play. But that wasn’t consistently reflected by the team he put on the field. For that reason, he is no longer the coach of the Seahawks.
https://theathletic.com/5194305/2024/01 ... coach-out/