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flyerhawk
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Pretty good article on the The Athletic by Ben Baldwin.
Is Pete Carroll the right coach for this version of the...
I know that there is a paywall for the article so I'll post some relevant parts. IMO, any serious sports fan should have an Athletic subscription. It's what ESPN used to be.
First Baldwin lists out the bad arguments about whether to keep him.
Let’s briefly get some of the bad arguments out of the way before getting to the more serious discussion. This isn’t to say that all arguments in favor of retaining Carroll are bad — as we’ll get to, they aren’t — but these particular ones are.
I'm generally against change for change's sake but I'm really much more willing to listen to arguments right now. So I think the above is all valid.
He gives several arguments for keeping Pete, which we all already know. And he gives several arguments for moving on from Pete. But to me these are the 2 biggies..
Pete's focus on running the ball has come at a cost in relation to the passing game. We have one of the best QBs in football and he is forced to throw to guys like Malik Turner and Jaron Brown. Now hopefully Metcalf will be the game changer we all think he can be and that can change this team around. But regardless we need more skill at skill positions. Collier may turn out to be legit but a run focused DE is rarely worth a 1st round pick these days.
But the bigger issue, IMO, is Carroll's philosophy. When we had a dominant defense, we could rely on heavy running and clutch throws by Russ. We don't have a dominant defense anymore. In fact we have the opposite. And yet our offensive philosophy is essentially the same. I am sick to death of the 1 yard gain on 2nd and 10. I am sick to death of the 53 yard field goal attempt on 4th and 2. It frustrates me to no end that we have to fall behind before they let Russ cook. And it frustrates me even more than Pete can't understand WHY we wait until we are behind to let Russ cook.
We have one of the most accurate deep ball throwers in the NFL. How bout throwing a deep ball on 1st down to start the game on a single read play? How bout letting Russ scramble for a couple of gains in the 1st quarter rather than waiting until we are behind? How bout a RPO or two early in the game?
Pete is going to be the coach in 2020, barring something remarkable happening. But hopefully the media will relentlessly pound into his brain that he has an exceptional talent behind center and winning games by 20 is better than winning games by 4.
Is Pete Carroll the right coach for this version of the...
I know that there is a paywall for the article so I'll post some relevant parts. IMO, any serious sports fan should have an Athletic subscription. It's what ESPN used to be.
First Baldwin lists out the bad arguments about whether to keep him.
Let’s briefly get some of the bad arguments out of the way before getting to the more serious discussion. This isn’t to say that all arguments in favor of retaining Carroll are bad — as we’ll get to, they aren’t — but these particular ones are.
The Seahawks haven’t ever seen this kind of success before. They also didn’t have Russell Wilson. And being bad in the past isn’t a good argument regarding what to do in the present. Next.
There are no other options out there. There are always choices. Just to name two, Eric Bieniemy and Greg Roman’s names circulated during this year’s coaching hiring process and it was somewhat surprising that neither landed a job. There’s no guarantee that they’d be better than Carroll, but qualified candidates exist.
Coaching changes are risky. It’s sports. Everything is risky, and nothing is guaranteed. But what’s the downside? Not competing for championships? That’s already what’s happening.
They’ll be worse when he’s gone. As noted above, nothing is certain. And while it is possible that the team would be worse — Wilson is getting older and Seattle probably won’t ever get as lucky in one-score games as the Seahawks did in 2019 — it’s not a guarantee.
He won a Super Bowl. He did! But Wilson isn’t on a rookie contract anymore and will carry a cap hit of $31 million next year. Being able to win with a team loaded with rookie-deal talent isn’t quite the same as building around a franchise quarterback who is paid as such. The question is whether Carroll is the right coach for this version of the Seahawks, not the 2013 one.
I'm generally against change for change's sake but I'm really much more willing to listen to arguments right now. So I think the above is all valid.
He gives several arguments for keeping Pete, which we all already know. And he gives several arguments for moving on from Pete. But to me these are the 2 biggies..
Going back to not maximizing Wilson, Seattle’s investment at low-value positions has left the team barren at others. Letting Russell Okung walk after 2015 left Wilson playing behind replacement-level left tackles until the team traded for Duane Brown in 2017. Prioritizing run blocking over pass blocking has resulted in Wilson playing behind dismal pass protection for most of his career, including one that ranked fifth-worst in ESPN’s Pass Block Win Rate in 2019. Only spending one of their first four draft picks on receiving options following the retirement of Doug Baldwin meant that Wilson was throwing to Malik Turner with the season on the line. Replacing Jimmy Graham with Ed Dickson hasn’t worked out, and Graham himself played a role in knocking the Seahawks out of the playoffs. And finally, after dismissing Darrell Bevell, the Seahawks declined the opportunity to hire an offensive coordinator with an innovative approach and proven track record of success and instead chose Brian Schottenheimer.
The second cost imposed by Carroll’s philosophy is how the Seahawks approach in-game decision-making. Again, this has been covered extensively, but this results in throwing away too many plays on unproductive run plays, especially early in games, making bad decisions on fourth downs, poor clock management, putting misplaced trust in the defense, and playing base defense at a rate that surpassed every other team by a substantial margin. According to PFF’s Eric Eager, after accounting for the talent on the roster as measured by PFF’s Wins Above Replacement measure, Seattle’s coaching staff has been about middle of the pack in terms of getting the most out of its players on both offense and defense. The end result of this is the Seahawks relying on Wilson to dig them out of holes.
Pete's focus on running the ball has come at a cost in relation to the passing game. We have one of the best QBs in football and he is forced to throw to guys like Malik Turner and Jaron Brown. Now hopefully Metcalf will be the game changer we all think he can be and that can change this team around. But regardless we need more skill at skill positions. Collier may turn out to be legit but a run focused DE is rarely worth a 1st round pick these days.
But the bigger issue, IMO, is Carroll's philosophy. When we had a dominant defense, we could rely on heavy running and clutch throws by Russ. We don't have a dominant defense anymore. In fact we have the opposite. And yet our offensive philosophy is essentially the same. I am sick to death of the 1 yard gain on 2nd and 10. I am sick to death of the 53 yard field goal attempt on 4th and 2. It frustrates me to no end that we have to fall behind before they let Russ cook. And it frustrates me even more than Pete can't understand WHY we wait until we are behind to let Russ cook.
We have one of the most accurate deep ball throwers in the NFL. How bout throwing a deep ball on 1st down to start the game on a single read play? How bout letting Russ scramble for a couple of gains in the 1st quarter rather than waiting until we are behind? How bout a RPO or two early in the game?
Pete is going to be the coach in 2020, barring something remarkable happening. But hopefully the media will relentlessly pound into his brain that he has an exceptional talent behind center and winning games by 20 is better than winning games by 4.