Seahawks fans disgusted at Coach of the Year snub for Pete Carroll

The Seahawks were one of the most surprising teams of the 2022 season. So how on earth was Pete Carroll snubbed for the NFL Coach of the Year? Does that make sense to anyone, anywhere?

Pete Carroll’s Seahawks stunned virtually every national NFL pundit by surpassing last year’s record, posting a winning season, and even making the playoffs. The consensus betting odds put the over/under of Seattle wins at 5.5. For those of you who aren’t morally depraved rootbeer-drinking gamblers, that means if you bet that the Hawks would win just six games, you’d win. USA Today’s Tim Weaver predicted the Hawks to go 6-11, and he’s a fan if anyone is.

I’m not knocking his prediction at all. It simply illustrates that according to most writers, the outlook for this team was dim. One talking head even predicted the Seahawks to go 0-17. Then again, that was just on TikTok, where idiocy is not only tolerated but encouraged. Here at 12thManRising, we were somewhat more optimistic. Predictions ranged from 5-12 – hey, it’s better than 0-17 – to 8-9 and 9-8. I never gave a definite number, but I expected a range between 7-10 and 10-7. I mean, we’re fans, so of course we were more optimistic.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll crushed all expectations, so where is his nomination?

If the Seahawks were going to be so terrible, but Pete Carroll took them to the playoffs, how is he not even nominated for the NFL Coach of the year? Sorry 12s, but I just have to go with a cliche here: explain it to me like I’m a six-year-old. Shout out to the amazing Denzel Washington as Joe Miller in Philadelphia, and of course screenwriter Ron Nyswaner. None other than proud 12 Jeffrey Dean Morgan had this to say on Twitter:

Seahawks.com reporter John Boyle made a brilliant point on the Twitter machine as well. As usual, Mr. Boyle is dead-on with his observation:

The voters he’s calling out, correctly so, are 50 members of the Associated Press. As Boyle stated, these are the people who didn’t think the Seahawks had a single All-Pro on the roster. Somehow, the same people didn’t see Pete Carroll as even one of the best five coaches in the league. Hmmm… so let’s look at the nominee’s rosters.

The Eagles Nick Sirianni had two first-team All-Pros and three more players on the second team. Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers featured four All-Pros on the first team and added two on the second team. Brian Daboll’s Giants didn’t place any players on the first team but did get two players on the second-team All-Pro roster. Sean McDermott’s Buffalo Bills only got one second-team player, but that’s one more than Pete Carroll had. The Jaguars Doug Pederson is the only Coach of the Year nominee that managed to do his job without a single All-Pro player. Here’s the complete list of the AP’s All-Pro selections.

Now let’s look at expectations. The excellent data-rich site fivethirtyeight.com predicted the season for those five COY nominees to play out as follows. Please note the game totals include expected playoff appearances. I’ve also listed the consensus betting odds for each team and their final regular season record.

Eagles: 15-3    9.5   14-3

49ers: 15-4     10.5   13-4

Giants: 10-8-1   6.5   9-7-1

Bills: 14-4     11.5    13-3

Jaguars: 10-9     6.5   9-8

Clearly, the staff at fivethirtyeight.com expected all five of those coaches to make the playoffs, as they all have more than 17 total games. Their prediction for Pete Carroll and the Hawks? 9-9, so congrats on nailing it perfectly.

But the oddsmakers saw the Hawks as rolling up a 5-12 or 6-11 record. Pete Carroll exceeded expectations by at least three games if not four. Virtually every sportswriter expected the Eagles, Bills, and 49ers to have excellent seasons. Only Daboll and Pederson were remotely as good as Pete Carroll this season. And let’s be real; neither of them started two rookie tackles, two rookie cornerbacks, and a career backup quarterback.

All 12s agree with JDM; Carroll being snubbed for the job he did with the Hawks is a joke. We agree with John Boyle’s understated outrage at the stupidity of the vote. It would be great if the AP voters could explain their nomination process, but in this case, they’re apparently the six-year-olds. What other explanation is there for the omission of Pete Carrol from consideration for the Coach of the Year?