After 14 years and 10 playoff appearances, the Seattle Seahawks have decided to move on from head coach Pete Carroll. Carroll will stay on with the organization in an advisory role, for whatever that is worth. Whoever Seattle hires as their next head coach, the team is going to likely look drastically different.
All the coaches that follow who should not be hired to replace Carroll are listed on several betting sites as potential replacements for Carroll. While all might be fine in the jobs they do, there are reasons they might not be good fits as an NFL head coach. At least not yet.
I have also seen oddsmakers say current New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick is a potential replacement for Carroll. That makes zero sense to me. Therefore, I do not have him listed in what follows.
Seahawks should not hire Frank Smith
If I had my guess I would think that the Seahawks want to make a true change away from the type of teams that Pete Carroll had. This very likely could mean keeping up with the brethren in the NFC West and hiring a young offensive coach. Smith is just 42 years old but has been coaching in the NFL since 2010. He has slowly worked his way up from assistant offensive line coach with the New Orleans Saints from 2010 through 2014, and then he coached tight ends with the Chicago Bears for a bit and then the Raiders for a few years. For the last two years, Smith has been the offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins.
The problem is that while Smith might be learning from the wise Mike McDaniel, the head coach of the Dolphins, but the offense is really McDaniel's and not Smith's. McDaniel calls the plays, so why would another team hire Smith when he isn't really in charge of the unit on the Dolphins that he supposedly coordinates?
I don't mind the idea of Smith being hired as the offensive coordinator by whoever the Seahawks do hire as head coach, however. McDaniel would have taught Smith excellent principles and Smith could apply those to a Seahawks offense that still has a great group of skill position players.
Seattle does not need to chase Lincoln Riley
There is one way Lincoln Riley leaving USC and coming to the Seahawks could work. That would be if Seattle hires Riley, then trades up into the top of the 2024 NFL draft, and then the Seahawks choose quarterback Caleb Williams. Williams played under Riley at USC, of course. The weirdness, however, is that after a Heisman Trophy-winning season in 2022, Williams didn't play as well in 2023 and the team only went 8-5 and lost five of their last seven games.
Riley's team are very good offensively as Riley is historically an offensive coach, but Riley's teams are not very good defensively, at least not consistently. Riley reminds me quite a bit of Kliff Kingsbury, who Riley hired at USC for 2023 after Kingsbury was fired as the Arizona Cardinals coach after last season. Both are in their early 40s and have a good mind for an offense, but making a jump from college to the NFL doesn't work out very well most of the time.
Whichever coach is hired, I am hoping they have NFL experience. Even if Riley had never been a head coach in the NFL but a coordinator I would feel iffy about it, but Riley did not play in the NFL and has never coached in the league. I think that is asking for too much of a jump.
Coaches do seem to transition better from coaching in the NFL to coaching in college. Pete Carroll did that, of course. Jim Harbaugh just won a championship with Michigan (maybe aided by some cheating) and he went from the NFL to college. But the reverse rarely works well.
Seahawks should not bring in Kellen Moore
Kellen Moore was once the next big thing when he was the offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys from 2019 through 2022. His offenses were overall pretty good but then the team seemed to stop being successful once they reached the playoffs. So much so that head coach Mike McCarthy failed to guarantee Moore would return in 2023 after the 2022 season.
Moore became the offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Chargers this year and the team greatly underperformed. That was really Moore's fault, however. The team suffered lots of key injuries, including quarterback Justin Herbert missing several games. Moore didn't ever have a chance to build up any consistency.
The biggest problem for Moore, though, is that he had a head coach lose faith in him in Dallas so why would another organization think, "Yeah, Kellen Moore has a long history of success as an assistant so let's put him in charge of everything." Seattle should probably go with a coach who has head coaching experience, but even if they go with an assistant he should probably have proven himself at every stop. Moore didn't fall up in Dallas, for instance, he was forced to leave.
Moore, though, does have local roots, of course. He grew up in Prosser, Washington, and then played at Boise State. He would be well-liked by 12s. But there is no proof Moore is capable of handling the stress and many hats a head coach needs to wear. If he fails, 12s might still like him as they watch him get fired.
Seattle should say no to Todd Monken
Monken is the offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens and the Ravens are a very good team, obviously. As an offensive coordinator, Monken has been successful at the college level and in the NFL. He has also been able to adapt his style to the talent of the players he has had so he can go pass-heavy or run-heavy and make either work fairly well. There is no doubt he is a pretty good offensive coach.
But he is also 57 years old and has never been a head coach in the NFL and has been a head coach for a total of three years (with Southern Miss from 2013 through 2015) in his career. That seems odd for someone who many respect so much as an offensive mastermind. What is it about Monken that make teams hesitate about making him the man in charge?
Monken might be a great hire for Seattle, but only as offensive coordinator. That is unlikely to happen, however, because that would be a lateral move and the NFL makes those difficult. Plus, while Monken might have had some good offenses, such as the one he has with the Ravens, one might wonder if that has as much to do with the talent he has (i.e. Lamar Jackson) that his decision making.
Monken has been with four NFL teams but over just none years and that is also odd. In only three seasons, including this one, has one of his teams finished with a winning record. I am not sure Monken has the successful experience it takes to know how to build a winning culture.