Losing Seahawks questions: How frustrated is Pete Carroll? Has he lost the locker room?
Is this the most frustrated Pete Carroll has been in Seattle?
Has he lost the locker room, or is he losing it?
To be clear: These questions don’t get asked, the answers aren’t so terse, these assertions aren’t made, when a team is winning.
These Seahawks are not doing that.
They are 6-7. They have lost four in a row for the first time in Carroll’s 14 years leading them. They are facing a nearly must-win game Monday night at Lumen Field against the defending NFC-champion Philadelphia Eagles (10-3).
It’s the 72-year-old Carroll’s first four-game losing streak since he was on his way to getting fired in 1994, his only season leading the New York Jets as a first-time head coach. In less than a month and a half Seattle’s gone from first place in the NFC West to the verge of playoff elimination.
So, these questions about frustrations and losing the locker room.
They’ve happened about Carroll before in Seattle. In 2017. That was one of only two times in the last 11 seasons Carroll’s Seahawks have failed to advance to the NFL postseason.
By the end of that season, the end of the Legion of Boom championship era in Seattle, All-Pro franchise cornerback Richard Sherman was injured and on his way to getting cut. Sherman said those Seahawks had “kind of heard every story, every funny anecdote” from Carroll.
Sherman and Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Bennett said the players had tuned out Carroll and the coach’s message had gotten stale after so many years, a Super Bowl title and a second Super Bowl that ended in failure at the 1-yard line. Bennett was gone, too, after that ‘17 season.
This week, Carroll uncharacteristically called out Jamal Adams and Riq Woolen, among others on the malfunctioning defense, for not playing as they were coached against particularly plays when the San Francisco 49ers scored touchdowns last weekend. That’s what Carroll saw as the reasons the Seahawks lost for the fifth consecutive time to the Niners, 28-16 Sunday in Santa Clara, California.
Carroll said he is taking these failures personally.
“It’s really disappointing for me with all of the work we put in, that we missed on the opportunity to do something right,” he said Monday. “We practice and prepare to do right in the games. That’s really what this whole thing is all about. When time presents itself and the opportunity presents itself, you’re in the right spot, and you see things the right way and you respond perfectly. (That) is what we’re trying to get done.
“Whenever that doesn’t show up, I take it personally. It’s personal. It’s a personal response out of me, because I’m trying to get these guys right.
“And it isn’t as clean or sharp as it should be.”
Bobby Wagner on Pete Carroll
Carroll’s frustration is obvious.
Is it at the highest level of his 14 seasons leading the Seahawks?
Nobody has played longer for and knows Carroll better than 33-year-old Seahawks captain Bobby Wagner, the six-time All-Pro linebacker.
Thursday, the lone remaining Seahawk from Carroll’s Super Bowl teams of the 2013 and ‘14 seasons was asked if this is the most frustrated he’s seen the coach.
“I think the whole situation is frustrating,” Wagner said Thursday. “Obviously, we have a lot of talent that we need to find a way to maximize that talent, but he’s still his same, positive self.
“I didn’t really look into it that much.”
Then he was asked: Has Carroll lost the Seahawks’ locker room?
“No,” Wagner said.
“I think it’s when you go on a four-game losing streak everybody tries to find something, tries to create the reason, especially people that’s not in the locker room. They try to come up with the reason, because you try to figure out what is going wrong.
“And so, you can name a player, you can name this, you could do that. Winning cures all of that. The moment you win, then it’s a whole different story.
“We understand what we need to do,” Wagner said.
“We need to do it, quick.”
K.J. Wright’s view of Pete Carroll
This is what the loss to the 49ers, again, has wrought.
Monday, on his weekly radio appearance the morning after a Sunday game, Carroll was asked by KIRO-AM host Mike Salk: “Do you feel like your message is getting through to your players?”
“Ask them,” Carroll said, tersely.
“Next.”
K.J. Wright was drafted by Carroll in 2011. He played 10 seasons for him in Seattle. He became a Super Bowl champion and Pro Bowl veteran with generational wealth while with Carroll’s Seahawks.
Wednesday, the retired linebacker, who still lives in the Seattle area, was asked on KIRO radio about Carroll’s “ask them, next” comment.
Wright sighed and blew air into the microphone.
“Oh, man,” he said. “What I’m hearing from Coach Carroll (there) is that he’s sick and tired of these guys.”
Again, this is Wright’s conjecture, based on hearing the coach’s comment replayed to him off the radio Monday. It is not what Carroll has personally told Wright, a great friend of Wagner who has remained popular with and welcomed around the team.
“He’s extremely frustrated,” Wright said of Carroll on KIRO, again basing his comments on Carroll’s “ask them, next” response. “He feels like that he’s preaching to them, he’s trying to be nice with them, but they’re just not receiving his message well.
“They essentially don’t give a damn what he’s saying at this point.”
Carroll was asked about Wright’s comments Thursday.
The coach smiled.
“I need to talk to K.J.,” Carroll said.
Asked if he’s heard any of that stuff, he said “no.”
He chuckled and turned his head.
“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” Carroll said, smiling.
Wagner had this reaction to what his friend said of the situation inside the Seahawks’ locker room: “I don’t think I saw the whole clip, but K.J. is a media person now. And, so, I know how that goes.”
Carroll said Thursday his players remain accountable to themselves and their mistakes, and that their mentality is great.
“I love these guys,” their coach said.
To the Eagles, and beyond
Now the Seahawks’ task is to do immediately what Wagner said would change all this.
Win.
To do that, the defense that has allowed 100 points and more than 1,300 yards the last three games must contain throwing, running quarterback Jalen Hurts. Hurts and his Philadelphia offense got throttled in Dallas last week and by San Francisco the week before to mar Philadelphia’s 10-1 start to this season.
The Eagles have scored no more than 7 points in the first half of each of their last four games since coming back from their bye: wins against Kansas City and Buffalo and losses to the Cowboys and 49ers.
On offense, Seattle needs Geno Smith back from his groin injury that made him miss the 49ers game last weekend. And play caller Shane Waldron needs backs Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet running with the most consistent chances and production this season.
Seattle’s 23 rush attempts per game, on average is 29th-most in the 32-team NFL. That’s not Carroll football.
Smith, Walker and Charbonnet all practiced Thursday coming off injuries, Walker and Charbonnet fully. All are on track to start Monday night.
The Seahawks are one of five teams at 6-7 in the NFC with four games left in the regular season. Green Bay has that record and has the conference’s seventh and final playoff spot.
The Packers have the league’s easiest remaining schedule by winning percentage of opponents (Vikings, Panthers, Buccaneers, Bears). Green Bay finishing 10-7 even after its loss at the New York Giants Monday night is not out of the question.
For the Seahawks to get to 10-7 they need to beat in succession the Eagles, then the Titans (5-8) in Tennessee Christmas Eve, Pittsburgh (7-6) in Seattle New Year’s Eve, and the Cardinals (3-10) the next weekend in Arizona to end the regular season.
Carroll’s goal all offseason and into the season, into November when Seattle was 5-2 and 6-3, was to beat San Francisco and win the division.
Now it’s to rally into the playoffs for the 10th time in 12 seasons, as the last wild card for a tough challenge at Detroit, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco — whoever finishes second in the NFC in four weeks.
That’s why he’s frustrated.
But, true to his nature, Carroll is finding optimism in a silver lining.
Clinging to a chance.
“There is so much at stake from this point forward. There is so much, with five other teams that are vying for this spot,” Carroll said. “It’s a run to the finish. We’ll see who wins the race. It’s exciting, and we have to make the most of it and be attuned into it.
“Everybody is well aware. We haven’t missed that point from the other night, so everybody knows what’s going on.”
This story was originally published December 15, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
