Jody Allen could make much-needed changes on the Seahawks sooner than later

The Seattle Seahawks will almost certainly make several key moves this offseason. Seahawks Chair Jody Allen could begin that process much sooner than many expect.

Everybody is talking about all the changes the Seahawks may face after this disappointing season. Even our friendly rivals at Niners Noise are in on the speculation. As our own Lee Vowell points out, they’re wrong. As it turned out, they were very wrong Indeed. But their comments reflect the zeitgeist surrounding the Hawks of 2021.

Change is coming. It should, what a team drops from 12-4 to 3-8 and from eighth in points scored to 25th. The questions are, how many changes will we see? How big will those changes be? And, exactly how soon will we see them?

Jody Allen could make significant changes to the Seattle Seahawks soon

Just a few days ago, I speculated that Pete Carrol could be forced to overhaul his coaching staff, much as Jim Harbaugh was at Michigan. Before this season began, Mr. Vowell wrote that Harbaugh would be a fine candidate to eventually take the reigns in Seattle. Note the word “eventually”; this wasn’t a Nostradamian view into this disastrous season. Dozens of articles have been written about moving Russell Wilson and rebuilding the Hawks. The gist is, change is coming.

Until now, the prevailing view was that this would all happen in the off-season. Jody Allen is the Chair of the Seattle Seahawks and the Trustee of the estate of Paul Allen. She isn’t the owner of the team despite what minor outlets like CBS Sports have written, but that’s just a quibble. She is the de facto owner, although she’s been fairly quiet about the Hawks troubles so far.

Until now, anyway. In an interview this weekend, Ms. Allen was quoted by Mike Garafalo of the NFL Network as saying the Seahawks problems are not a one season issue. It’s worth noting that despite the excellent win over the Niners, we can’t assume that everything that led to eight losses has been magically repaired. One game doesn’t reflect the reality at Lumen Field any more than one season. Garafalo did add, as you can see, that Allen isn’t disregarding all the prior successes. Still, she’s right. The issues on this team didn’t start in 2021.

Those who thought Jody Allen wouldn’t take action soon should look to Portland. The Trail Blazers are also under her oversight within the Paul Allen Trust. On Friday, she terminated the contract of Blazers President and GM Neil Olshey. Granted, this was a totally different situation, in that Olshey was accused of a toxic work environment. You’d have to search every hard to find a Seahawks player who would level that accusation at Pete Carroll. Not that everyone agrees with him, but toxic? Carroll is the anti-toxin of coaching, always has been.

That in fact may be part of the problem in Seattle. Pete is too nice, too loyal. Regardless of the circumstances, we now know that Jody Allen is anything but an aloof “owner”. Paul Allen didn’t get involved in the day-to-day operations of the Seahawks either. He hired the people he trusted to get the job done, and let them do it. It remains to be seen how much trust Ms. Allen has in that same team.