The Seasons of Pete: Ranking each of Carroll’s 14 years with the Seahawks
SEATTEL – Pete Carroll’s Seahawks coaching tenure was about so much more than numbers.
He was the gum-chewing, monarchs-wearing, age-defying, enthusiasm-pumping coach who brought life back to NFL football in Seattle after the ragged end to the Mike Holmgren era and the rough one-year detour of Jim Mora, with his effervescent optimism, charisma and relentless energy.
Numbers, ultimately, are how coaches are judged by history.
Carroll’s resume speaks loudly – a 137-89-1 record in 14 seasons in Seattle that is the best in franchise history.
He went 10-9 in playoff games, the most playoff appearances (10) and playoff wins in franchise history.
All are numbers that figure to be hard for any Seahawks coach to top – Carroll’s 14-year tenure was four years longer than any other in team history. Mike Holmgren’s 10 years in 1999-2008 is next on the list.
As Carroll heads off into the unknown, let’s look at how he achieved those franchise-defining marks, rating each of his 14 seasons with the Seahawks:
1. 2013 – 13-3, Super Bowl title: Amid expectations as heavy as any in franchise history, the Seahawks started 11-1 to claim the No. 1 seed in the playoffs and beat New Orleans, San Francisco and Denver in the postseason to claim the only Super Bowl trophy in team history. Carroll said Wednesday standing on the podium and spotting his wife, Glena, in the crowd was the high point of his Seahawks career.
2. 2014 – 12-4 Super Bowl runner-up: The job Carroll did to get the Seahawks back to the Super Bowl may be better than remembered. Not only was there the newfound fame for everyone involved, but players such as Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman and Doug Baldwin signed new contracts that offseason making them richer than ever, with Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner waiting in the wings – always a potentially challenging intangible to manage. Then there was the Percy Harvin soap opera, culminating in his trade after five games. After staggering to a 3-3 start, Carroll rallied the troops to win nine of the last 10 in the regular season and again get the one seed and to the Super Bowl and within a yard of NFL immortality.
3. 2012 – 11-5, lost in divisional round: There were promising signs in Carroll’s first two seasons, but the reality was two 7-9 records. A 6-5 start in his third year had at least some questioning where things were headed. Then it all came together in dizzying fashion with the memorable 150-point, three-game splurge sparking a five-game winning streak to end the regular season and a run to the divisional round that set up all that was to come.
4. 2020 – 12-4, lost in wild-card round: Carroll expertly handled maybe the most challenging season in NFL history. The pandemic meant most games were played in front of empty stadiums and the athlete activism following the death of George Floyd made the games feel as unimportant as ever. Players lauded Carroll for his managing of the off-field issues. On the field, Carroll adroitly used newly acquired safety Jamal Adams to lead the defense while Russell Wilson threw for a career-high 40 touchdowns as the Seahawks won the fifth division title of Carroll’s tenure. But it ended in a disappointment with a home loss to the Rams in the wild-card round – a game when they could desperately have used the roar of a Seattle crowd.
5. 2022 – 9-8, lost in wild-card round: Expectations were the lowest they’d been since Carroll’s first season following the trade of Russell Wilson. Carroll exuded optimism at every turn and molded QB Geno Smith – who disproved the notion he was just a career backup – and a talented rookie class that included six key contributors into a 6-3 start and one of the surprises of the NFL before fading to the finish, but still making the playoffs.
6. 2015 – 10-6, lost in divisional round: It’s tempting to paint this season as the beginning of the end because of a Super Bowl hangover from the ill-fated pass in Glendale. The Seahawks battled tangible issues such as Marshawn Lynch’s injuries, Kam Chancellor’s holdout and integrating Jimmy Graham into the offense. After a 4-5 start that could have been crippling, Carroll rallied the troops to win five in a row and get back to the playoffs and finish No. 1 in the NFL in fewest points allowed for a fourth straight season before losing in the divisional round to Carolina.
7. 2011 – 7-9, no playoffs: Carroll’s second season marked the real beginning of the Legion of Boom as the Seahawks added cornerbacks Brandon Browner and Richard Sherman to second-year safeties Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor to form what, by season’s end, was the best secondary in the NFL. They struggled offensively behind banged-up Tarvaris Jackson, but the emerging defense allowed the seventh fewest points in the NFL, foreshadowing what was to come.
8. 2016 – 10-5-1, lost in divisional round: While there were some significant defensive changes from the Super Bowl teams because of free agency and other issues, the Seahawks still ranked third in the NFL in fewest points allowed. That helped cover for an injury-riddled season for Wilson, whose passer rating of 92.6 was the lowest of his Seattle career. The Seahawks won a fourth division title in Carroll’s first seven years and got a home playoff win over Detroit – the last home playoff win of Carroll’s tenure, as it turned out – before a loss in the divisional round at Atlanta.
9. 2019 – 11-5, lost in divisional round: The record masks that this was one of Carroll’s biggest years of regret. The Seahawks started 10-2 with Wilson playing at an MVP level and in contention for the No. 1 seed before losses in three of the last four games consigned the Seahawks to second place in the division and the fifth seed. Still, they beat the Eagles 17-9 in the wild-card round before a what-could-have-been divisional playoff loss at Green Bay. The Philly win would prove to be the Seahawks’ last playoff victory under Carroll.
10. 2010 – 7-9, lost in divisional round: Maybe it made sense that Carroll’s Seattle career began with what is possibly the strangest season in team history. The Seahawks took advantage of a weak NFC West to win the division at 7-9. They were 10-point underdogs at home against the defending Super Bowl champion Saints before pulling out as unlikely a victory, a 41-36 win punctuated by the Beast Quake run. The game contained shadows of all the elements that would come to define the Carroll era.
11. 2018 – 10-6, lost in divisional round: After not making the playoffs in 2017 Carroll fired both coordinators, bringing in Brian Schottenheimer to get the Seahawks back to leading with the run on offense, and Ken Norton Jr., to revive the defense. They led the NFL in rushing. But Earl Thomas’ holdout and season-ending injury after just four games cast a pall over things. Once he was hurt, only Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright remained from the defense that won the Super Bowl. They were never in the division race and lost a wild-card playoff game at Dallas, 24-22, that was later viewed as the beginning of Wilson’s discontent with the direction of the team.
12. 2023 – 9-8, no playoffs: For a while, Carroll’s name was on the fringes of coach of the year talk as the Seahawks used a few dramatic finishes to start out 5-2 and 6-3, seeming to build off the 9-8 record of 2022. Then came a collapse as the schedule strengthened and exposed that the team had more flaws than anyone anticipated – and ultimately causing the organization to decide it was time to move on.
13. 2017 – 9-7, no playoffs: This was the true changing-of-the-guard season as it was the last for defensive stalwarts Sherman, Chancellor, Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril, and it showed as a defense ranked in the top seven in fewest points allowed each of the previous six years fell to 13th. The Seahawks somehow got just one rushing TD from someone other than Wilson. In retrospect, that this team got to nine wins required some decent coaching. This season makes a clear demarcation in the fun first half of Carroll’s tenure, and a second half spent chasing the success of the LOB era.
14. 2021 – 7-10, no playoffs: Following a weird offseason of Wilson trade rumors and rumblings of discontent, the Seahawks got off to a 2-2 start before Wilson suffered the first major injury of his career. That led to six losses in seven games, the worst record of the Carroll era, and the trade the following March of Wilson.