Grey Area: Seahawks learn that mo’ money is mo’ problems

Biggie and Puff didn’t have football in mind when they recorded that song back in 1996, but it hits near the center of the biggest challenge to date for Pete Carroll.

On paper the Seahawks have most everything you need to make back-to-back championship runs. They have a rock-solid run-first offense, a smash-mouth defense, a cerebral quarterback with all the physical skills and a proven coaching staff. On paper the Seahawks might be even better than they were entering training camp in 2013. However, it’s how Pete Carroll deals with all that offseason paper that will decide whether this team becomes the first in a decade to win back-to-back Super Bowls or just the latest one-and-done in the NFL.

To me, Carroll’s greatest feat with the Seahawks was successfully implementing a college-style structure to a professional team. So many collegiate coaches fail at the next level due to the inability to adjust to an environment in which the players are grown men, some of which make far more than the head coach. Not Pete Carroll. Out in Renton, “Always Compete” isn’t just a saying emblazoned on the practice field scoreboard, it’s the philosophy that has governed everything this team has done, and it has received total buy-in from the players on the roster.

However, money changes everything and that effect has been proven before a snap of football has been played with the hold out of Marshawn Lynch. ESPN’s Mike Sando reports that an executive from another NFL team expected a hold out from Lynch when the Seahawks signed other key players to extensions in the offseason. No team is immune to the effects of the almighty dollar, not even a defending champion. General manager John Schneider and Pete Carroll now have to not only get their team ready on the field, but they are also charged with a potential precedent-setting contract standoff with Lynch.

How Carroll further adjusts his plan around players that helped change the culture and have since been rewarded will be key to the Seahawks future. Michael Bennett, Richard Sherman, Doug Baldwin and Earl Thomas all became made men by NFL standards in the offseason and represent a collective gamble this team has not taken in the past.

Carroll’s flexibility – in many cases genius – stems from the fact that no player is irreplaceable and, more importantly, no player’s failure was outsized by his cap hit. That is no longer the case and maintaining a roster is just plain harder with large allocations of money in a handful of places. Obviously he and Schneider trust the players that they signed in the offseason, but the room for error has been reduced with each successive deal. It’s also worth noting that Schneider and Carroll trusted Lynch at one point too.

Then there’s the not-at-all minor matter of the white hot spotlight that comes with defending the Lombardi Trophy. In 10 minutes online yesterday I found Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson breaking down Richard Sherman’s trash talking technique, Mike Francesa extolling the virtues of the beating the Hawks put on the Broncos and a full-length column about ESPN television “embedding” themselves with the Seahawks for a two-hour live training camp special – and I wasn’t surfing for Seahawks news.

The bottom line is the Seattle Seahawks are everywhere, and with that comes all the dreaded “distractions” head coaches loathe so much. You can bet that Marshawn’s hold out will dominate any coverage of the Seahawks until he is back in the fold. Players and coaches alike will be asked about little else. Focus will be that much tougher to maintain as the Hawks have gone from a cast of colorful characters to world champions.

None of this is to say that Pete Carroll cannot or will not get the job done, only that it will be the toughest challenge of a storied career. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing how the man handles the spotlight, the new superstars and a chance to move the Seahawks into some of the rarest of air in the NFL. In fact, given the new pressures and challenges, it’s only fitting that Carroll himself cashed in his own new deal in the offseason as well.

Mo’ money, mo’ problems.