Pete Carroll: Seahawks have talked to K.J. Wright about possible future with the team
K.J. Wright says he wants to return to play for the Seahawks.
Pete Carroll says the team has talked to him about that, and more.
Two days after the 32-year-old Super Bowl-winning linebacker with the Seahawks nine years ago said he wanted to “go back home” and play again for Seattle, the team’s coach said that is a possibility.
“I love K.J.,” Carroll said at the end of the Seahawks’ rookie minicamp at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. “I’ve already talked to him about stuff for the future, and all that.
“I did hear that he talked about playing (for Seattle). We’ve already talked about that.”
Wright, 32, played 10 seasons for the Seahawks from 2011-2020, winning a Super Bowl and becoming a Pro Bowl outside linebacker next to All-Pro and great friend Bobby Wagner.
The chance to return to the Seahawks could take the form of coaching or advising as much or more than playing.
Two league sources told The News Tribune Sunday Wright and team leaders including Carroll have talked, but not necessarily about playing for Seattle.
Wright’s words on Friday to long-time NFL reporter Trey Wingo seemed to indicate he’d be OK with retiring from playing. He turns 33 in July.
“If it’s not Seattle again, I’ll be happy,” Wright said. “I’ll be content.”
Last offseason, the Seahawks decided to have 2020 Jordyn Brooks take Wright’s job as weakside linebacker in Carroll’s 4-3 defense.
Wright eventually signed last summer with the Las Vegas Raiders. His family stayed behind at the Wrights’ home in Seattle. Wright played in all 17 regular-season games plus a wild-card playoff game for the Raiders at linebacker.
He is currently an unsigned free agent.
“I just want to go back home,” Wright said to Trey Wingo on his Half-Forgotten History podcast Friday. “I think it’s that simple. Seattle knows that I want to come back. They know how much they mean to me.”
Wright never wanted to leave. He waited months last offseason for an offer from the Seahawks that never came. The native of Mississippi and his wife Nathalie have decided to make Seattle their permanent home.
During the 2020 season Wright said: “I am staying in Seattle well beyond my Seahawks playing days.”
He was Seattle’s 2018 nominee for the NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year Award for his work building homes for needy families in the Seattle area, plus for investing in new wells for drinking water in a Kenyan village he and his wife visited years ago.
His former linebackers coach and defensive coordinator for Seattle, Ken Norton Jr., called Wright “a coach’s dream” and a “special, special player.”
But the conditions for the Seahawks have changed dramatically from 2020 when Wright and Wagner were still anchoring the center line of Carroll’s 4-3 system.
This offseason, Carroll is changing his defense to more of a faster, varied 3-4 style. He fired Norton in January and promoted line coach Clint Hurtt to coordinator to install the new schemes. Carroll hired Sean Desai from the Chicago Bears and Karl Scott from the Minnesota Vikings to remake the back seven of Seattle’s defense. They want youth, speed and edge pass rushing — none of which Wright specializes in after 11 NFL seasons.
Carroll also released Wagner, in March. Brooks and Cody Barton are on track to be the inside linebackers in the new 4-3, instead of Wagner being the lone middle linebacker in the old 4-3. Barton was Seattle’s third-round pick in 2019. He made his first career start late last season, for the injured Wagner.
Brooks took off replacing Wright in 2021. He set a Seahawks record for tackles in a season, breaking Wagner’s mark. Brooks has the speed and around-the-field versatility that make him ideal for what Carroll is trying to do with his linebacker in the 3-4 style. Darryl Taylor is entering his second full, injury-free season as an outside linebacker. He is coming off a 6 1/2-sack season.
Seattle drafted Boye Mafe from Minnesota in the second round last week to be another Taylor-like edge rusher as a 3-4 outside linebacker.
Unless Wright is willing to take a part-time role at near veteran-minimum salary playing behind his replacements in 2022, his return playing for Seattle doesn’t seem to fit, strategically.
The bottom line is Wright wants to come home. And he prefers to keep playing.
“Last year, I left, I went to Vegas by myself, my family didn’t come with me. I’m not doing that again,” Wright told Wingo on the podcast Friday. “I don’t think I’m going to move my family anywhere across the country.”
This story was originally published May 8, 2022 at 11:41 AM.
