I don’t know if you’ve heard, 12s, but there has been a bit of controversy in the Seahawks camp the past couple of weeks. Apparently, quarterback Russell Wilson and head coach Pete Carroll aren’t exactly seeing eye to eye. You’ve seen more than a few articles here on 12thManRising about it already. Okay, that’s just one article, but you get the picture. I thought I’d take a different approach. Mainly, should 12s be blaming Pete Carroll for this?
In a word, no. Our glorious editor Lee Vowell already detailed how most fans see this, um, feud. I believe Carroll has already made a couple of very obvious moves to support Wilson. I’ve mentioned both of these moves in separate articles. The Hawks added Shane Waldron as their offensive coordinator a month ago. They just added another key member to their offensive staff in the person of Carl “Tater” Smith. So, why should DangeRuss be happy now?
Russell Wilson might not be happy with the Seahawks, but it looks like Pete Carroll and the team made some moves specifically to make their QB happy.
Well, Carl Smith was his position coach for the first six years of his career. That sort of relationship would tend to build a bond and a certain amount of trust. If you don’t think that the return of Smith is important to Wilson, read what our QB had to say about him, from Jason Jenks’ article for the Seattle Times, waaay back in 2016:
"“For me and him, over the past four years, we’ve been through some amazing times,” Wilson says. “We’ve won a lot of football games, and a lot of that is credit to him and how he helps prepare me in such an amazing way.“He positively affects everyone around him in everything he does. And that’s the best thing I can say about Tater: He positively affects everyone he knows and everyone around him. I just really believe he’s a true difference-maker for our team. I tell Tater he’s still got another 10 years left in coaching.”"
So, yeah, I think Russell Wilson should be pretty happy about Smith’s return. And according to Number 3, the Seahawks new staff member still has five years left on his coaching calendar. And as I wrote earlier, if Wilson isn’t happy about Shane Waldron running the offensive show in Seattle, I don’t know what will. These are two big additions to the team that were both added before Wilson voiced his concerns. Frankly, I’m as puzzled as the Seahawks on this one.