Seattle Seahawks: 5 coaches who could be Pete Carroll’s replacement

3. Gus Bradley

Bradley was the defensive coordinator for the Seahawks from 2009-2012, spending his final three seasons in Seattle under Pete Carroll before being hired away to be the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Bradley led the Jaguars to a 14-48 record with zero playoff appearances in just under four seasons (Fired before week 16, 2016). The next year he was hired to be the Defensive Coordinator of the Los Angeles Chargers for their first year in LA, and he has been there ever since.

Aside from his prior head coaching experience, his defenses with the Seahawks and Chargers were, and still are statistically outstanding. His Seattle defense’s gradually got better as the Legion of Boom trickled in, with his final defense before heading off to Jacksonville ranking first in points and fourth in total yards.

In LA, his defense’s have been in the top half of the NFL in the two aforementioned stats all three of his years there. His head coaching record, along with LA’s Defensive DVOA in 2019 (21st in the league), doesn’t help Bradley’s case. But if Norton is out as DC in Seattle, Carroll may want to bring his old DC back.

Bradley’s contract is up after 2020 as well, so it could play out perfectly for Bradley to be brought back to Seattle, and then take over as head coach if Carroll pleads with the front office for Bradley to be his successor.