SEATTLE — After 14 seasons, 10 playoff appearances and the franchise’s lone Super Bowl championship, Pete Carroll is out as the Seattle Seahawks‘ coach.
Team owner Jody Allen said in a statement Wednesday that the decision was made “after thoughtful meetings and careful consideration for the best interest of the franchise.” Carroll will remain with the team in an unspecified advisory role.
In an emotional farewell news conference Wednesday, Carroll, reading from a prepared statement, said he and ownership have “mutually agreed to set a new course.” However, he said he “competed pretty hard” to remain Seattle’s coach and that he ultimately “went along with their intentions.” Carroll said his comments after the Seahawks’ season finale that he wanted to continue coaching the team were “true to the bone.”
“I want to make sure that that’s clear as things have shifted so quickly in most people’s perspective,” Carroll said. “It’s been an honor and a thrill to be part of this program and I’ve loved every minute of it. You’ve watched me love it.”
Asked if he’d entertain another head coaching job if the right opportunity arose, Carroll said he didn’t know, adding that “today is about today.” Carroll said it has yet to be determined what his role as an advisor will entail, but that it will not include assisting general manager John Schneider in the search for his successor.
Carroll’s assistant coaches have been given permission to look for jobs elsewhere, a source told ESPN.
“Pete is the winningest coach in Seahawks history, brought the city its first Super Bowl title, and created a tremendous impact over the past 14 years on the field and in the community,” Allen said. “His expertise in leadership and building a championship culture will continue as an integral part of our organization moving forward.”
The Seahawks are expected to be interested in, among others, Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Quinn served as a Seahawks assistant from 2009 to 2010 and was their defensive coordinator from 2013 to 2014.
The role change comes after Carroll said in his postgame news conference Sunday, and reiterated Monday in a radio interview, that he intended to return as coach for the 2024 season.
“I plan to be coaching this team,” Carroll told Seattle Sports 710 AM. “I told you that I love these guys, and that’s what I would like to be doing and see how far I can go. I’m not worn out. I’m not tired. I’m not any of that stuff. I need to do a better job and I need to help my coaches more and we need to do a better job of coaching, and there’s a lot of area for improvement.”
The Seahawks ended their season Sunday with a win over the Arizona Cardinals but missed out on a wild-card berth with a 9-8 record. They got off to a 5-2 start that briefly had them in first place in the NFC West, but a second-half skid doomed their playoff hopes.
That second-half stretch included the Seahawks’ only four-game losing streak of the Carroll era. Among those losses was a 31-13 blowout on Thanksgiving night at the hands of the division rival San Francisco 49ers, who have beaten the Seahawks five straight times (including last season’s wild-card round) by a combined score of 148-72. The Seahawks also lost 37-3 to the Baltimore Ravens in November, their second-worst margin of defeat under Carroll.
Hired by the Seahawks in 2010, Carroll had the fourth-longest tenure with his current team of any head coach, behind Bill Belichick, Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh. At 72, Carroll had been the NFL’s oldest head coach for several years but had given zero indications that he was getting close to retirement. The five-year extension he signed in 2020 put him under contract with the Seahawks through the 2025 season.
The Seahawks have no obvious head-coaching candidates on their current staff. General manager John Schneider, who arrived with Carroll in 2010 and is signed through the 2027 draft, now stands alone as the highest-ranking member of their football operations department.
Carroll exits as the winningest coach in Seahawks history, with a record of 137-89-1 and 10 playoff victories. Including his head-coaching stints with the New York Jets and the New England Patriots, his career record of 181-131-1 puts him 13th in NFL history in regular-season and playoff wins. Along with Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer, Carroll is one of only three coaches to win both a college national championship and a Super Bowl.
The Seahawks marked Carroll’s third — and by far most successful — stint as an NFL coach. He lasted one season with the Jets, who went 6-10 in 1994, and was fired by the Patriots after three seasons, having gone 27-21 with two playoff appearances.
After spending the 2000 season out of football and reshaping his coaching philosophy, Carroll was hired by USC, beginning a dominant nine-year run that included seven consecutive Pac-10 titles and a pair of national championships.
The Seahawks lured him away from USC in 2010 with the promise of final say in personnel moves, something he didn’t have in either of his two previous head-coaching stops. Carroll, who also held the title of executive vice president of football operations, teamed with Schneider to lead the Seahawks through their most successful run in franchise history. Seattle’s 10 playoff appearances since 2010 matched the number of times the Seahawks had reached the postseason in their 34 years of existence before Carroll and Schneider arrived.
The Seahawks hammered Peyton Manning and the Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVIII. Their hopes of repeating as world champions the next year against the Patriots were dashed when Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson‘s pass at the goal line in the closing seconds. The Seahawks have made the playoffs six times in the nine seasons since then but haven’t advanced past the divisional round.
Brady Henderson
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