The beginning of the 2025 NFL season is going to be an odd one for Seattle Seahawks fans. Tyler Lockett will be playing for the Tennessee Titans, DK Metcalf will be performing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and then things get really weird.
When the Las Vegas Raiders take the field in Week 1 of the season, Pete Carroll will be their head coach and Geno Smith will be their quarterback. While a 12s favorite team is the Seahawks, there are going to be a lot of eyes on what the Raiders do this season, too.
One thing that might still be missed by Seahawks fans is the energy and positivity that Pete Carroll had seemingly every hour of every day. He has taken that same attitude to the Raiders, and his new players have noticed. One of them is star edge rusher Maxx Crosby.
Maxx Crosby echoes many Seahawks fans' thoughts when it comes to Pete Carroll
Speaking with ESPN's Ryan McFadden recently. Crosby said, "He's true to that (attitude). It's not fake energy. And it's not just him, it's the assistant coaches, the whole building. It just feels different. Pete creates that culture where everyone knows it's hard."
That is a perfect description of how Carroll operated with the Seahawks, too. His mantra of "Always Compete" wasn't only meaningless words. He meant it and put it into practice when teams would go through OTAs and training camp. Camp might not have been easy, but it was fun and held with a positive attitude.
Carroll will always remain relevant for Seahawks fans as well. He led the franchise's only Super Bowl victory and got to another one (which we will not sour the mood here by bringing up the ending). In 14 of his seasons in charge of Seattle, his teams made the playoffs 10 times.
Expecting to make the playoffs was the norm for the Seahawks and 12s nearly every season of the 2010s. In the last several seasons, that hasn't been the case. The team made the postseason in 2022, but was bounced out in the opening game and wasn't expected to do much damage anyway.
Perhaps, newish head coach Mike Macdonald is in the course of changing that expectation. The Seahawks won 10 games in 2024, the only team to win double-digit games and miss the playoffs. Seattle has a chance to win that many again in 2025, and if that happens, they will likely make the postseason.
And while it was right and good for Seattle to move on from Carroll after the 2023 season, since the team has become stagnant and stuck in mediocrity, it doesn't mean the franchise and fans don't miss, even in a small way, Pete Carroll's enthusiasm.
Maxx Crosby might not be telling the full truth either. Many Raiders fans seemed to have pushed back on his comments, saying that Crosby says the same thing every year, no matter who the coach is. Seahawks fans know that Crosby is telling the whole truth, though.