Getty Head coach Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks during the 2023 season.
When now-former head coach Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks decided to mutually part ways on Jan. 10, 2024, the franchise lost a lot of things. The team lost the winningest coach in its history, the only coach to ever win a Super Bowl there, and one of the most beloved figures – on and off the field — to ever wear the Seahawks logo. According to long-time Seahawks rival Chris Long, though, the biggest and most important thing the team lost is its “belief.”
Chris Long Shared His Pete Carroll Insight From Time in NFC West
From 2008-15, defensive end Chris Long plied his trade in the NFC West for the St. Louis Rams. From 2010 on, that meant he went up against a Pete Carroll-coached Seahawks team twice a season.
Long was on the “God Bless Football” podcast with Stugotz from “The Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz” when news broke of Carroll and the Seahawks parting ways.
“Damn! Holy Hell, dude. Man, Pete. I got a lot of respect for Pete. I played in that division for a long time,” Long said upon hearing the news. “I think what Pete brought to them was, not only was he a great coach and all that. He was one of the few coaches was successful in college and successful in the pros. But he gives that team a belief.”
Long continued and explained how that belief instilled by Carroll manifested on the field through the years for the Seahawks.
“There’s no reason that — as bad as the Eagles were — going to Seattle [in Week 15] you shouldn’t get beat by Drew Lock,’ Long explained. “Some of the game-winning drives by Geno [Smith] has put together the last two years. The confidence that he gave Geno. … You go up and play in Seattle, magic things just happen.”
“Damn! Holy Hell!…I got nothing but respect for the dude.” – @JOEL9ONE
@Stugotz790 and Chris Long react to Pete Carroll being out in Seattle.
Long went on to say he’s long thought the team “had a horseshoe up it’s a**” in the Pete Carroll Era. That includes recovering the onside kick against the Green Bay Packers in the 2014 NFC Championship Game or having the replacement officials incorrectly giving Golden Tate a Hail Mary catch in Week 3, Sept. 24, of the 2012 season (ironically, also against the Packers).
“It felt like every game you’d go up there and something lucky would happen in the fourth quarter,” Long revealed. “But after a while, I just realized Pete is a guy who breathes the belief that is necessary to win in those situations.”
Who Are the Best Seahawks Head Coaching Candidates?
Now that Pete Carroll is gone, attention will shift to who the next head coach of the Seahawks is. The early front-runner is current Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn — who was the Seahawks DC on the Super Bowl-winning team — but the franchise will surely have an extensive interview process.
Carroll came in with a defensive background, too, but that was 14 years ago. Plus, it’s not like he came from the NFL play-calling booth right to the Seahawks’ sideline. He had years of high-level head coaching experience at USC.
The NFL is in a wildly different place these days than it was back then, and hiring an offensive coach is all the rage.
Names that should be on the Seahawks’ interview list on that side of the ball include Detroit Lions OC Ben Johnson, Houston Texans OC Bobby Slowik, Tampa Bay Buccaneers OC Dave Canales, and Miami Dolphins OC Frank Smith. Even the team’s own offensive play-caller, Shane Waldron, should at least get a look.
While teams love “offensive geniuses” these days, the Seahawks bucked convention once with Carroll, and they could do it again in 2024.
If the team does look to go defense again — and that does work in the modern NFL with solid hires like DeMeco Ryans and even Jonathan Gannon in their own division last year — there are a few intriguing candidates.
On the Seahawks’ docket on the defensive side of the ball, you should find Carolina Panthers DC Ejiro Evero, Baltimore Ravens DC Mike Macdonald, and Minnesota Vikings DC Brian Flores.