Salk: After last 2 seasons, Pete Carroll’s actions were needed on Seahawks’ coaching staff
Jan 11, 2018, 7:00 AM
(AP)
Kyle Brown, producer of Brock and Salk, argued passionately on Wednesday that the Seahawks are a mess after the news started to break that the team was parting ways with offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and offensive line coach Tom Cable.
I don’t necessarily agree, but I get it.
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For the Seahawks to move on from their entire offensive brain trust – and with a move on defense potentially still coming – is a sign of major upheaval. I think with strong leaders at the top in coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider, they can afford some uncertainty, and I’m willing to give both the benefit of the doubt that they will hire the right replacements. And while that may show just how bad things had gotten, it also offers hope that they can be improved.
But what I think we have to all agree on is that they were a mess.
A year ago, Richard Sherman gave us a window into some disharmony with his sideline antics and postgame rants. Last offseason, we read about how divided the Seahawks locker room could be (at times). Then we watched this season as the identity of this team melted away from the inside.
They weren’t physical. They couldn’t run. They didn’t suffocate teams on defense.
Their offense became, as Rich Gannon said while calling one of their games, just a matter of waiting around to see how Russell Wilson would bail them out on third-and-long.
Their defense gave up horrifying last-minute drives at home against Washington and on the road in Jacksonville.
They got blown out for the first time in a long time. To a division rival. With the playoffs on the line.
All of that is bad. Real bad.
And while it stinks to have allowed that to happen and to have seen the window close on members of the Seahawks’ core, the past is behind us and I’m relieved that Pete and his crew are ready to forge ahead with new blood and a fresh take.
I don’t know if it will work. No one does. There are no obvious internal candidates to replace Bevell, Cable, and possibly defensive coordinator Kris Richard. Not like when Dan Quinn replaced Gus Bradley or Richard replaced Quinn.
Pete’s track record of attracting interesting young minds – including many with which he had no previous history – should make most fans confident. But what I am most happy about is that he took action. That he recognized a problem and decided it could not be alleviated through trips to what Sherman dubbed the “Kumbaya room” or by trying the same things and expecting different results.
Action was necessary and Pete took it. And while that may show just how bad things had gotten for the Seahawks, it also offers hope that they can be improved.
Game on.
More from Mike Salk: Two things I didn’t agree with that Pete Carroll said