Pete Carroll Should Be On The Hot Seat In Seattle
It takes a lot to make Russell Wilson angry. The Seahawks quarterback is the most boring interview in the NFL. It’s impossible to watch an interview involving Wilson because he routinely goes out of his way to praise so many people. Eventually, you exit out of the video before he gets to the part where he thanks DK Metcalf’s grandmother for helping birth him.
The point being, I was shocked to hear the news that Wilson voiced his frustration with the organization. It takes a lot for Wilson to get to that point. Where did things go wrong?
If you’re going to do any sort of finger-pointing in Seattle, the onus needs to go towards head coach Pete Carroll. The 69-year-old Carroll has run mad with power and it’s time to start holding him accountable. Carroll officially belongs on the hot seat despite the fact that he likely won’t ever be.
Can we just be honest about Pete Carroll? Are we sure he’s good at what he does? Yes, Carroll is a high energy leader, but he’s far from perfect. At USC, Carroll dominated… until Chip Kelly and Jim Harbaugh showed up. Then USC drifted into irrelevance and has since been able to recover.
In the NFL, Carroll was very average… before Russell Wilson showed up. Carroll was fired after one 6-10 season with the Jets. He was then let go by New England in favor of Bill Belichick. Before Wilson showed up in Seattle, Carroll went 7-9 in back to back seasons. The only thing I know is that the Seahawks quarterback probably deserves the most credit for not having a losing season since he was drafted.
Furthermore, Carroll is a defensive head coach. There’s no room to sugarcoat anything. His defense stinks. It not only stinks, but it also keeps getting worse the longer he’s there. There are two direct correlations for why his defense keeps getting worse.
A: Let’s get this out of the way. It’s not like Carroll has lost talented assistants on the defensive side of the ball. Dan Quinn is an utter moron. Ditto for Gus Bradley. Carroll hasn’t lost one assistant that’s gone on to win big elsewhere.
B: There’s a talent drain in Seattle. When Carroll first entered the NFL, he had a leg up. He knew all the college guys for the first five years he entered the NFL. When Carroll passed on his own safety Taylor Mays to pick Earl Thomas, it was clear he knew what he was doing.
Seattle constantly found steals in the draft like Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor in the later rounds. That’s what paved the way to Seattle winning a Super Bowl. However, the longer Carroll has been removed from the college game, the more his draft classes stink.
It was great when Carroll knew the college game. Now the Seahawks head coach looks drunk with power. Seattle’s draft classes have been all over the map. The only way to describe what they’re doing is getting horny off of doing the weirdest shit possible.
Rashaad Penny in the first round? WTF? Jordyn Brooks and LJ Collier in round one? Outside of DK Metcalf and the punter, I don’t think you can chalk up another successful draft pick over the last three years. Even the Jamal Adams trade was as dumb as it gets. Nobody with a rational brain would have given up that much draft capital for a safety that can’t cover.
Sometimes you say things without actually saying them. I know now that Seahawks general manager John Schneider is sick of Carroll’s nonsense and has lost the power struggle. Schneider is so miserable in Seattle that he ALMOST took the job in Detroit. Do you know how angry and frustrated you have to be to even consider that alternative?
C: Carroll is becoming the defensive version of Mike McCarthy. Both are older coaches who are failing to adapt to the times. Nobody just wants to stay it about Carroll because he’s been more successful.
Carroll runs the patented cover 3 defense and refuses to adapt. When Carroll first entered the league, he had teams confused because nobody really saw it around the league. The longer Carroll is in the NFL, the more teams have figured out his scheme. It doesn’t work anymore.
What good is a defensive head coach that trots out a shit defense? It doesn’t make sense. On the offensive side of the ball, Seattle has identity problems. The question is constantly how much do we let Russ cook? It’s a revolving door of changing your mind. There’s never a real balance that works. That also falls on Carroll for not putting the right people in place to get that taken care of.
What does Pete Carroll do well right now? Okay, he’s an old guy that’s been around the game that has high energy? Big whoop. Give me more. Where’s the offensive genius? Where are the smart draft picks? Where is the high level defense? More so than any other franchise in the league, the Seahawks feel like a Russell Wilson bail out every Sunday. When someone with his character speaks up, it’s likely overdue.
Pete Carroll needs to be on the hot seat. He’s one more goofy draft pick away from getting fired (or should be).
