Pete Carroll: Jody Allen has been ‘on same page’ with coach’s view of Seahawks’ future
Jody Allen has supported Pete Carroll’s beliefs for the Seahawks’ path forward next year and beyond.
That’s what Pete Carroll says — not that the coach and top football authority necessarily would disclose if he thought otherwise.
Carroll said on Seattle radio station KIRO-AM Monday morning there is “not for one reason at all am I thinking that we have to restart this whole thing and create a new philosophy and a new approach. I think we have the essence of what we need.”
Monday afternoon, the Seahawks’ 70-year-old coach was asked if Jody Allen has blessed his don’t-need-to-restart belief following Seattle’s first losing season since 2011.
“We’ve been on the same page about everything that’s going on since she took over,” Carroll said.
That was in October 2018 when her brother Paul Allen died. Jody Allen took over as chair of the Seahawks and of the Paul G. Allen Trust to be in charge of the assets in her late brother’s estate.
Carroll said regular communications with Allen are by general manager John Schneider. Carroll said the owner is involved in “everything” the team is planning and doing, from personnel decisions to contract to signing free agents and the draft — and that Allen would be involved that way this coming offseason, as usual.
When saying Monday morning on KIRO-AM radio the Seahawks have “the essence” of what they need to win, Carroll added: “We’ve got to build on them. We’ve got to support it better, and we’ve got to continue to grow and progress.
“There’s no standing still, but there’s the foundation for doing things.”
Not needing to start over strongly suggests keeping the biggest piece to that foundation: Russell Wilson as their franchise quarterback. He remains under contract for two more seasons after this one.
The Seahawks have big-dollar decisions to make this winter on the expiring contracts of Pro Bowl veterans Quandre Diggs at safety and 36-year-old Duane Brown at left tackle. That’s among the annual crop of free-agent contract decisions from winter into spring.
“I think you can count on us to figure it out,” Carroll said, “coming from a philosophical foundation that we have.”
Those decisions will begin in earnest following the final two games for the Seahawks (5-10): Sunday against Detroit (2-12-1) in the home finale, and at Arizona (10-5) Jan. 9.
“She’ll know what’s going on in everything,” Carroll said of Allen. “That’s what John is doing. John is making sure their communication and their ongoing conversation about stuff is to keep her abreast about what’s happening.
“Like, I won’t call her up. John will call her up to let her know what’s cookin’ and what’s going on. If she’s got questions, we connect and we meet and we do all those things.
“I just wish you guys knew her more so, because you would understand why I think it’s so impressive to have her be the owner, and how strong she is, and the direction that she gives us. It’s really strong.”
Wilson, Carroll, Schneider all signed
The most important pieces of the franchise are all under contract for at least two more seasons beyond this lost one.
Carroll is under contract to coach the Seahawks and remain their executive vice president in charge of football operations and matters through the 2025 season. If he fulfills his contract, Carroll would be the oldest coach in NFL history, past his 74th birthday. That’s the result of the contract extension team chair Allen gave last year to the franchise’s winningest coach and only one to win a Super Bowl for Seattle.
Carroll’s contract is believed to be worth more than $11 million per year he had in his previous deal, which was to have expired after this season.
Last winter, Allen gave Schneider an extension as GM through the 2027 draft.
Carroll and Schneider have been joined contractually and philosophically since Paul Allen hired Carroll to run the Seahawks in January 2010. Paul Allen and Carroll then hired Schneider from the Green Bay Packers’ front office to be a first-time general manager.
Wilson, the $140 million franchise cornerstone, is under contract through 2023. This season was his first missing games because of injury in his 10-year career. The 33-year-old quarterback has not played like the elite thrower, decision-maker and escape artist since — and often early this season before — his surgery Oct. 8 to repair the middle finger of his throwing hand.
Carroll has multiple times during this sunken season explained Allen’s involvement in team matters is in a manner that is counter to the belief of some that because she is not in the media about the team as some are prominently in the NFL, Allen presumably is detached from regular Seahawks operations.
‘Normal’ meeting last month
Jody Allen met with Carroll and Schneider last month for what the coach termed a “normal,” midseason meeting about the team. Allen is the Seahawks chair, chair of Vulcan, Inc., and trustee of the Paul G. Allen trust. She attends Seahawks home games and many road games, watching from a suite.
When she is not at road games the team’s vice chair is, Bert Kolde.
In November, Carroll emphasized how normal that meeting with Allen was. The said it was not at all out of the ordinary or a reaction to the team being in last place past the midpoint of this season.
Monday, Carroll said Allen “works with her advisement and they keep track of what’s going on” with the football side of the Seahawks.
“John does most of the communicating, on a regular basis, with reports, updates, decisions that we are faced with, choices that we have an opportunity to make,” Carroll said. “And she stays on it. She is strong in her awareness of what’s going on. She’s strong in her opinion on what she wants to see done.
“She’s involved. Now, I don’t think she’s that involved with the league, either. She doesn’t go to that end of it. She doesn’t go to the media. That’s not her way of doing it. She works with us. ...
“She’s really on it, and she’s strong, and she’s got an opinion. She’s clear about what she wants. She had a real feeling about the organization and the fans, and the community that surrounds our team, and how she wants that to go and how she wants our relationships to be handled. She’s really clear about that.
“She’s just not one that’s involved with the media.”
Allen so far has given no indications she wants anything other than what she’s kept since her brother’s death in October 2018: status quo atop the Seahawks. In fact, she has given no indications about anything about the Seahawks.
She has for the last couple months been presiding over the ouster of the leaders of the Portland Trail Blazers, the National Basketball Association team of which she is also chair. Trail Blazers general manager Neil Olshey was fired this month after a workplace investigation about allegedly violating the team’s code of conduct and creating a toxic work environment. Shortly after the investigation of Olshey began the Trail Blazers’ president and CEO resigned, Chris McGowan.
This story was originally published December 27, 2021 at 4:34 PM.
