Pete Carroll reportedly interviewing for an NFL head coach job
Jan 7, 2025, 5:00 PM | Updated: 5:48 pm
Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll during a Nov. 19, 2023 game against the Rams. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
(Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
The chances of former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll returning to the NFL just increased.
An NFL insider’s view on Seahawks OC change and what’s next
ESPN’s Dan Graziano posted Tuesday afternoon on social media that sources told him and colleague Jeremy Fowler that the Chicago Bears “plan to interview” Carroll for their head coach opening.
Bears plan to interview former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll for their vacant head coach job Thursday, sources tell me and @JFowlerESPN
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) January 8, 2025
It was reported by ESPN late last month that Carroll had interest in returning to coaching in the NFL, particularly for the Bears.
Related: Seahawks players put in good word for former coach Pete Carroll
Chicago fired previous coach Matt Eberflus in November, and while the team went 5-12 and finished last in the NFC North, it has a promising future with quarterback Caleb Williams and a trio of talented wide receivers that includes former UW Huskies standout Rome Odunze.
Following the 2023 season, Carroll was removed as Seahawks head coach after a 14-year tenure. He moved into an advisory role for the franchise, but ESPN Seahawks reporter Brady Henderson said on Tuesday that his “understanding” is that Carroll is no longer under contract with the Seahawks. That would eliminate one possible hurdle to Carroll landing a new job, which is that a trade may have been needed to be arranged with Seattle to hire him.
The Seahawks went 10-7 but missed the playoffs in 2024 under new head coach Mike Macdonald, a year after Seattle went 9-7 for a second straight year under Carroll and missed the postseason for the second time in a three-year span.
Carroll, 73, is the most successful coach in Seahawks history, having led the team to a 137-89-1 record, 10 trips to the playoffs, two Super Bowl appearances and the only championship in the team’s existence. He was the oldest coach in the NFL at the time he was let go by Seattle.
Both Carroll and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, 72, were let go from their longtime posts within days of each other at the end of last season. Belichick recently returned to the coaching ranks by taking over the reins of the University of North Carolina program. Carroll, who went 97-19 and won a pair of NCAA championships in nine seasons at USC before coming to Seattle, could soon join him in coaching again after a year off.
