Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is underrated in CBS Sports ranking

CBS Sports produced a ranking of all the head coaches in the NFL. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll ranked 8th. Not bad but he’s better than that.

I guess 12s shouldn’t feel too bad, however. The same ranking as Patriots coach Bill Belichick as the third-best coach. Third. I am not a fan of the Patriots or even of Belichick but I can give respect where respect is due. And for someone who still elevates his teams and has more Super Bowl rings than any coach in history, third seems low.

The best coach in the NFL, per CBS Sports, is Andy Reid. Reid is no doubt a great coach, but better than Belichick? No. And while I am admittedly a Seahawks fan, I could argue that Reid is no better than Carroll.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is once again underrated in ranking of head coaches

Reid has a better all-time winning percentage than Carroll (.633 to .593) but Carroll had to completely make over the Seahawks when he became head coach in 2010. It took him just a bit over two years to do that which is fairly quick work. And four years after taking over in Seattle, Carroll won a Super Bowl.

But some of the other coaches ahead of Carroll are Buffalo’s Sean McDermott and Matt LaFleur. Neither are bad coaches but neither is as good as Carroll. McDermott is in his 6th season as a head coach. Carroll is in his 17th. Let’s see if McDermott is still coaching in 11 years.

LaFleur is four seasons in with the Packers. He took over a team that had one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history (Aaron Rodgers) in a division (the NFC North) that isn’t really very good. The NFC West, home of the Seahawks, has been much better in the last four seasons, for instance, than the NFC North.

CBS Sports was way off, however, when writing about Carroll, “You worry about stubbornness here, especially as he looks to prove his run-first approach doesn’t need Russell Wilson to work.”

Let’s end this narrative, please. Carroll doesn’t want a run-first offense. He wants balance. We saw at the end of the 2021 season that a balanced Seahawk offense is a good one. And a balanced Seattle offense in 2022 will help Seattle exceed national expectations this coming season.