At 8-7 on the season, Pete Carroll has his Seattle Seahawks surprisingly in playoff positioning heading into NFL Week 17.
Seattle has won two consecutive games after a four-game losing streak. It has a real opportunity at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers New Year’s Eve before closing up shop on the regular season on the road against the lowly Arizona Cardinals.
With that said, no one will mistake this team for a legitimate conference title contender. In fact, Seattle has actually been outscored by 32 points on the season.
This does not mean that the 72-year-old Carroll has not done a great job in the post-Russell Wilson era. It also doesn’t mean that he’ll be long in the Pacific Northwest.
NFL insider Albert Breer of MMQB just recently named off teams that could have head coach openings. Of the 12 possibilities, he mentioned the Seahawks specifically.
Carroll has been the Seahawks’ head coach since all the way back in 2010. He’s the third longest-tenured head coach with the same team, behind New England Patriots’ Bill Belichick and Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Interestingly enough, all three have now been mentioned as potential firings/trade candidates this coming offseason. Belichick and the Patriots will almost certainly see their near quarter-century marriage come to an end. Meanwhile, rumors are popping up that the Steelers could consider a Tomlin trade.
Related: Top Dallas Cowboys assistant favored to land Seattle Seahawks job if Pete Carroll retires
Pete Carroll coaching record in Seattle: 136-88-1
Carroll has been Seattle’s most succesful head coach in franchise history. That included winning the Super Bowl following the 2013 season.
However, things have been in somewhat of a downturn recently. Seattle finished with a 7-10 record back in 2021. It earned a surprise playoff last season, only to get blown out by the division rival San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Wild Card round.
The question here is obvious. Are these Seahawks closer to rebuilding/retooling than competing? Based on this trajectory, we would assume so.
That could lead to the NFL’s oldest head coach opting for another opportunity on a team that’s closer to contending. Whether any of the opening would really qualify this coming offseason remains to be seen.