NFLPA gives former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll a parting gift

The Seattle Seahawks needed to make a move away from former head coach Pete Carroll. Carroll was not a bad coach, but after 14 seasons the team seemed to become stale, mediocre, and with no real way out of fixing it. Maybe Carroll did not know how because he had been in charge of the on-football part of the organization so long that he did not know any other way.

Seattle relieved Carroll of his duties after the season and brought in new head coach Mike Macdonald. General manager John Schneider now has the final say over the roster and was promoted to President of Football Operations. The team will have a fresh perspective and hopefully, that translates to future success.

But make no mistake that Pete Carroll the human being will be missed. He was always positive, seemingly a nice person, and he cultivated an environment that made players feel needed and welcome. Instead of treating players like tools, such as Bill Belichick likely did with the New England Patriots, Carroll treated his players like men.

Former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll was well-liked by his players

A recent survey by the NFL Players Association proves that fact. The NFL recently asked players how they saw several aspects of their team and assigned them a grade. For instance, the Seahawks got a grade of C for the training room. Seattle received a B+ for their nutritionist/dietician.

But Carroll was among a handful of coaches to receive a grade of A in how coaches behaved toward their players. This means that while Carroll might not have been winning at the same level he once was with the team, his players still respected him. Word gets around the NFL, of course, and one reason some free agents might have been open to coming to Seattle was because they knew Carroll would make them feel welcome.

The culture of the team should hopefully remain close to the same as well. Pete Carroll might not be a big part of the organization anymore, but general manager John Schneider still is and Schneider, of course, worked with Carroll for 14 years. The GM is unlikely to want the way players were treated to change.

Other coaches to receive an A from their players were Sean McDermott, Zac Taylor, Mike McCarthy, Sean McVay, Mike McDaniel, Nick Sirianni, Mike Tomlin, and Kyle Shanahan. Andy Reid, Dan Campbell, and Kevin O'Connell were each given an A+. Belichick was interestingly given a B-. The lowest grade of D was handed out to Josh McDaniels. He was fired after eight games and Las Vegas then went 5-4 without him probably in part because the players were happier to not have McDaniels.

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