Seahawks’ Pete Carroll explains why it was time for Richard Sherman, Michael Bennett ‘to move on’
May 4, 2018, 1:34 PM
Pete Carroll responded to Richard Sherman's comments that the Seahawks had grown stale. (AP)
(AP)
The two biggest reasons the Seahawks are in the middle of an offseason of change is that defensive stars Richard Sherman and Michael Bennett are no longer on the team.
Seahawks release defensive end Cliff Avril
Sherman, who is coming back from Achilles surgery, was released by Seattle in March and signed with the San Francisco 49ers the next day. Bennett was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles earlier this offseason. Both players have been outspoken about the end of their time in Seattle, and head coach Pete Carroll didn’t shy away from addressing Sherman and Bennett’s comments in an interview with Brock and Salk on Friday morning (listen here).
“I’m not sad. I’m not surprised, though,” Carroll said about the two players’ comments. “We’ve just been through so much and I know where their head is at and they’re looking at stuff and they can go from one moment to the next and see things a little bit differently, it can change for them, and they’re battling. They’re out there battling for their own sake. It would be nice if they saw it differently. I see it differently than they saw it.”
Sherman said on the Uninterrupted’s “The Thomahawk Show” that Carroll’s messaging with the Seahawks had become stale, while Bennett told Sports Illustrated’s Greg Bishop that he read books during team meetings in 2017 because he had already heard what Carroll was saying. Carroll denied that Bennett ever read books in meetings during a press conference last month.
“Regardless of what they say, I’m not gonna be that petty about it,” Carroll told Brock and Salk. “They’re battling in their own right right now and they’re trying to figure out how to make it come together in this new setting that they’re in, and it’s difficult on them. It’s a challenge for them too. They’re trying to find their way. As always, our kids make mistakes and they falter and they don’t quite pull it off like you like and then you guide them and you help them. Somewhere down the road everything will be fine. I’m not worried about it.”
Carroll didn’t let the players off the hook for why they felt things had grown stale with the Seahawks, however.
“They have a responsibility to stay fresh, as well. They have a responsibility to see it new. They have a responsibility to keep making this a challenge for themselves. … I’m a teacher, I gotta help these guys learn, I gotta do whatever it takes to get that done and get the communication right. So we’re constantly tweaking, we’re constantly evolving – they need to do the same. The freshness can come from both directions, or see you later. If it isn’t the right place, go. ‘You have to go? You’re out of here.’ That’s a point I don’t mind making – it was time for these guys to move on.
“… Competition never gets old. There’s no stale-ness in that.”
