Pete Carroll and former Seahawks coaches keep falling up this offseason

The Seattle Seahawks have gone through a lot of coaching staff changes over the last couple of years. Former head coach Pete Carroll was dismissed, for all intents and purposes, after the 2023 season. Mike Macdonald was brought in to replace him and that appears to be a solid move.

One move Macdonald (and geberal manager John Schneider) made that did not work out was hiring Ryan Grubb as offensive coordinator. Grubb was fired after one year when the offense got worse as the season grew old. He has been replaced with Klint Kubiak.

But based on the recent histories of other coaches who have been let go by Seattle, Grubb should be fine. He has already, in fact, landed the offensive coordinator job at the University of Alabama. He will probably be a head coach in a couple of years at some college.

Former Seattle Seahawks coaches keep falling up this offseason

Brian Schottenheimer promoted to head coach of the Dallas Cowboys

Scottenheimer's career with the Seahawks lasted from 2018 through 2020. In his time as offensive coordinator, the team set a record for points in a season (459 in 2020) and quarterback Russell Wilson played arguably the best football of his career. But Schottenheimer was not the most creative OC, so if Seattle ran into trouble, he could not seemingly fix the issues.

This was especially the case in the second half of the 2020 season. After scoring at least 31 points in seven of the team's first eight games, Seattle only scored more than 20 or fewer in four of the final eight. The OC was fired after the Seahawks lost to the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs.

Don't worry for Schotty, though. He became the Dallas Cowboys' OC in 2023, and this offseason he surprisingly was named the team's head coach. This happened even though the Cowboys' offense went from scoring 29.9 points a game in 2023 to 20.6 points a game in 2024.

Sean Desai hired as the Cincinnati Bengals senior defensive assistant

Desai was well-respected when he was hired by Seattle to be an associate defensive head coach. Prior to that, he had spent one season as the Chicago Bears defensive coordinator, but when Chicago fired head coach Matt Nagy, Desai was gone, too. Some thought that Desai coming to the Seahawks might mean he would become the new head coach if Pete Carroll ever stepped down.

Instead, Desai left after one season and became the Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator. That was a mistake. He lost the confidence of head coach Nick Sirianni before his first season was done with the Eagles, and Desai was relieved of his defensive play-calling duties. In fact, it was reported that he wasn't even part of the team's coaching meetings.

This week, Desai was hired to be a senior defensive assistant with the Cincinnati Bengals. He held the same job with the Rams in 2024, but one can likely assume that Desai has a better chance of taking over as defensive coordinator sooner with the Bengals than the Rams. Or, he helps improve a struggling Bengals defense from this past season, and Desai gets a DC job elsewhere in 2026.

Pete Carroll hired as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders

With Seattle, Carroll wasn't just the head coach of the team, he was also Vice President of Football Operations. In other words, the organization made a foundational move when they basically fired Carroll after the 2023 season. Sure, he stayed on as an "advisor," but seemingly did not do much advising.

Carroll was by far the most successful coach in Seahawks history, though. He had a better winning percentage and more wins than anyone else. He also led the team to two Super Bowls, including Seattle's only championship in the 2013 season. He also appeared to be a good guy, who a 12 might want to root for even if Carroll was no longer with the team.

This theory will be tested beginning this season. Carroll was hired by the Las Vegas Raiders to be the team's new head coach. The Raiders have been struggling for several years, and they need a culture reset. Carroll should be just the man to do that with his positivity and energy.

Shane Waldron gets hired anywhere (fine, as passing game coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars)

Waldron proved both in Seattle and Chicago that he should not be an offensive coordinator. The hope was when the Seahawks hired Waldron in 2021 that he would bring an element of Sean McVay Rams' offense with him. He might have tried to do that, but Waldron showed little creativity so maybe the foundation was scheme only without any real adjustments.

That was one of Waldron's biggest issues in Seattle. If he entered a game with a good plan, fine. But once the opponent adjusted to what Seattle was doing, Waldron could not re-adjust. Waldron should have been fired prior to being free to walk away when Carroll was relieved of his duties after the 2023 season.

Waldron was so bad with the Bears that the team let him go midway through his first season as offensive coordinator. Still, Waldron found a way of finding a new job this offseason. He was hired as the Jacksonville Jaguars passing game coordinator.

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