Seahawks made the right move with Pete Carroll extension

The Seahawks announced the extension of Pete Carroll’s contract on Monday. And why not because he has earned it.

Hi, 12s! Do you remember prior to the season when there was some talk that Pete Carroll’s run as head coach of the Seahawks might come to an end soon? Possibly even after the 2018 season? I wasn’t a fan of that thinking but all coaches tend to wear out their welcome.

But after the job Carroll has done with a re-tooled and young Seattle roster, extending his contract for the foreseeable future just makes sense. Seattle announced Carroll’s extension of two more years beyond 2019 on Monday. Carroll will be under contract in Seattle through 2021. And that might turn out to be even longer depending on what Carroll wants to do.

And why shouldn’t Carroll be extended? A season after former Seattle corner Richard Sherman said Carroll was losing the locker room, Carroll led a Sherman-less team back to the playoffs. In doing so, Carroll may have done the best coaching job of his career.

This offseason, Carroll brought in new offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and new defensive coordinator Ken Norton, Jr. The offense overall is better than it was in previous seasons and has much more balance. Seattle’s defense is performing better than anyone could have anticipated. Carroll took a chance by hiring new coordinators and those hires have worked.

Nearly every week Carroll has had his team prepared better than whichever coach he happened to be facing. He has gotten the young players, like Chris Carson and Tre Flowers, to buy in to what the team wants to do. Carroll also got rid of players, like Sherman and Michael Bennett, who may have had a negative affect on the locker room environment.

Carroll didn’t lose the locker room when Sherman was here. He lost Sherman and maybe Bennett and maybe Earl Thomas individually but not the team as a whole. Seattle has proven to be better without those players in 2018 than they would have been with them. And most of that credit should go to Carroll.

It also says a lot to me that Kam Chancellor has stuck around the team this year. Chancellor was always more of a true leader than Sherman or Bennett and young players respect him more. Chancellor, unlike other players, didn’t give up on the previous teams. The former safety obviously believed in what Carroll was trying to do and young Seahawks can sense that too.

So keeping Carroll in Seattle is a great thing. I will take his Seahawks-best .621 winning percentage, and his leading the team to the playoffs in seven of his nine years – including Seattle’s only Super Bowl win in 2013 – and be very happy with it. Most other teams in the NFL wish they had a coach like Carroll. The Seahawks are fortunate to have him for several years to come.