Top 3 reasons why Seattle Seahawks can make it to the NFL playoffs

Reason for Seahawks making the playoffs No. 3: Pete Carroll gets the best from young teams

There can be an argument made that the "older" teams get the more they might tune out Pete Carroll. This happens with most coaches that have held a job for a decade or more. Richard Sherman seemed to complain about hearing the same stories Carroll always told. Therefore, maybe the buy-in wasn't as great from Sherman and Earl Thomas in 2017 as it was in 2012.

But Carroll has an energy that is just different from most head coaches, let alone those around 70 years old. Players need to be able to feed off of his postivity. But Carroll is also a great teacher, especially with the secondary, and having young guys learning from him works well. The Legion of Boom was great because of their talent, but also because they had Carroll as a mentor.

Now, Carroll has Tariq Woolen and Devon Witherspoon to work with. Heck, Michael Jackson might be 27 years old, but he was better last year than in previous seasons because he had better teachers in Carroll and DB coach Karl Scott. In terms of NFL football knowledge, Jackson was like having a young player.

Seattle certainly has key veterans like Bobby Wagner and Geno Smith, but the team is laden with rookies and second-year players and Carroll always gets more success than expected from young teams. He was a great coach at USC, for instance, simply because young guys want to be coached and Carroll knows how to coach them. Seattle might not be ready to truly contend until 2024, but they wil be better in 2023 because Pete Carroll is the head coach.