Seahawks’ Carroll: ‘I plan to be coaching this team’ moving forward

Jan 8, 2024, 12:54 PM | Updated: 9:26 pm

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll and Geno Smith watch a field goal on Jan. 7, 2024. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

(Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

BY BRANDON GUSTAFSON

Seattle Sports

The Seattle Seahawks wrapped up the 2023 season with a close 21-20 win over the Arizona Cardinals, and they’re now in offseason mode.

There’s plenty of business that the Seahawks and the rest of the league will have to take care of, but things always start with the guys who are running the show as head coaches.

The Monday after the NFL regular season has concluded has been tabbed as “Black Monday,” and right now there are five head coaching openings in the league. If you ask Pete Carroll, he doesn’t see the Seahawks making it six.

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“I plan to be coaching this team,” Carroll told Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk during his Monday morning Pete Carroll Show. “And I told you, I love these guys. And that’s what I would like to be doing and see how far you can go.”

Carroll is signed through the 2025 season as his contract technically runs through 2024 and has an option year for 2025, per an NFL Network report. Carroll is also 72 years old and is the oldest head coach in the NFL. But he doesn’t feel like slowing down.

“I’m not worn out. I’m not tired. I’m not any of that stuff,” he said. “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. There’s a lot of area for improvement.”

This time of year is when “the real focused planning begins,” Carroll said. He and general manager John Schneider are “always talking” about what the future holds for the Seahawks.

“This is when the real business starts to take place,” Carroll said. “So there’s things that have to be done and decisions have to be made and choices and all kinds of stuff. That’s what this time of the year is. And we’ll see how we go.”

Part of that business could mean significant changes, both to the roster and the coaching staff. Carroll was asked about that on Monday.

“There’s always changes,” Carroll said, repeating so two more times. “The roster changes, all kinds of things change. That’s just getting better and trying to groove it so you can get as good as you can possibly get. That’s what those meetings are all about.”

Are Seahawks closer to a Super Bowl?

The Seahawks went 9-8 in 2023. They also went 9-8 in 2022, a season in which they made the playoffs.

The Seahawks didn’t improve in the standings, but Carroll does think they’re closer to making a Super Bowl than they were this time last year.

“Yeah, I do. It’s so clear,” he said. “We’ve improved. We’ve got some guys in situations that have helped us and we should grow and we should we should come together in even a more powerful way. This team’s got a future. This team has got a real future. And not everybody can say that. They don’t know. There’s nothing to keep us from thinking that. It’s an exciting outlook for the future, and we’ll see what happens.”