Seahawks Pete Carroll believes in everyone. Until they get cut.
When Pete Carroll sings the praises of a Seahawks player, remember to take those enthusiastic endorsements with a shaker of salt. I think he truly believes everything he says – until reality sets in and it’s time to make cuts.
The Seahawks have already gone through some massive roster changes and will no doubt see even more. 12s, you will do well to remember that even though Pete Carroll truly loves all his players and shows that love- well, mostly – the Seahawks still have to make roster cuts. That’s where things get a little dicey in Seattle.
I can’t say this is exactly a problem. So much of peak sports performance is based on confidence, after all. Confidence and mental toughness, as my brother constantly reminds me. Listen, bro, three hours of tennis in the grueling heat of a Florida summer shows plenty of mental toughness. Just because you cheated and were better than me – oh, sorry, we were talking about the Seahawks and Pete Carroll.
Pete Carroll hypes his Seahawks until the moment they aren’t Seahawks
Allow me, 12s, to give you a few examples. The most dedicated of you may remember the name Cyril Grayson. The Seahawks took a flyer on the former LSU track star back in 2017. He impressed more than a few of his teammates, and more to the point, he also impressed Pete Carroll. As the great Bob Condotta reported for the Seattle Times, Pete couldn’t say enough great things about the track star:
"“Really a beautiful first impression he has made for us,’’ Carroll said of Grayson. We’re going to be patient with him because he has such good natural talents. We’ll wait him out and see how long it takes. Remember we took a long time with Ricardo Lockette, and Lock figured it out and became a real constant around here, but it took him a while coming out of the track background and all of that. So we’ll see what happens but very encouraged by what we’ve seen.”"
No matter how much Pete Carroll talked up Grayson, he never made it off the Seahawks practice squad. He was good enough to eventually catch on with the Buccaneers, though, and even got three starts last year. Looks like Pete was right – it took him a while. But when you’re competing with players like Tyler Lockett, Doug Baldwin, David Moore, and yes, even Brandon Marshall, it’s hard to make that final cut.
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That’s why when Pete says how much he wanted Drew Lock, I advise you to take all that love and confidence and projected upside with more than a grain of salt. Clearly, the Seahawks believe he has potential, as they have sat out the quarterback frenzy this offseason. The undeniably excellent DK Metcalf says he deserves a chance, and let’s face it, the man knows his stuff. At least when we’re not talking about calamari.