Pete Carroll returning to coaching? In the city the Seahawks arrived into on Christmas?
That would be an intriguing re-Pete.
The 73-year-old Seahawks coach until 11 months ago is exploring being an NFL head coach again next season. He’s “expressed interest” in coaching the Chicago Bears. That’s according to a story Wednesday on espn.com by NFL reporter Adam Schefter.
The Seahawks (8-7), with rookie head coach Mike Macdonald replacing Carroll, play the 4-11 Bears Thursday night at Soldier Field. Chicago’s coach is interim head man Thomas Brown. The Bears enter Thursday night on a nine-game losing streak.
Carroll coached the Seahawks for 14 years, to and through the most sustained excellence in franchise history. Seattle made the playoffs 10 times and won its only Super Bowl championship with Carroll in charge from 2010 until January 2024. That’s when team chair Jody Allen and vice chair Bert Kolde chose general manager John Schneider’s path forward over Carroll’s. The Seahawks fired Carroll, then the league’s oldest coach, at the end of last season. That was a week after they finished 9-8 in his third non-playoff season in 12 years.
The Seahawks replaced Carroll with Macdonald. The Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator in 2022 and ‘23 is the youngest NFL head coach, at age 37.
Macdonald has the Seahawks a game plus tiebreakers behind the Los Angeles Rams for the NFC West title with two games remaining.
Carroll intimated at the time the Seahawks fired him 11 months ago he might not be done coaching. He said with certainty that he was not just going to ride waves off his north-shore home in Hawaii with his wife Glena, about whom he spoke lovingly amid tears the day the Seahawks let him go after 15 years.
“I’m supposed to go lay on a cot somewhere,” Carroll said in January 2024. “That ain’t happening.”
Schefter reported “league sources” say in recent weeks Carroll has become interested in returning to coaching in the NFL.
“He has not yet spoken with any teams yet, per sources,” Schefter wrote on espn.com Wednesday, “but he would welcome that chance.”
Pete Carroll in the last year
The Seahawks have been paying Carroll what’s believed to be about $15 million this year, to end his contract.
He has been around the Seattle area this past year. He’s attended his grandchildren’s youth sports games on the city’s east side. He’s visited the University of Washington’s football team. His son Brennan Carroll is finishing his first season as the Huskies’ offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, under first-year UW coach Jedd Fisch.
In August, when NFL teams were in training camp, Carroll was asked on KJR-FM radio in Seattle if he desired to coach again.
“I get asked a lot, so I’m pretty familiar with answering that I could coach tomorrow,” Carroll said four months ago. “I’m physically in the best shape I’ve been in a long time. I’m ready to be ready to do all the activities that I’m doing and feeling really good about it.
“I could, but I’m not desiring it at this point.”
He said then on KJR he was looking forward to returning to the University of Southern California…to be a teacher.
Sitting out not coaching a football season for the first time since 2000 — the year between the New England Patriots firing him and USC hiring him to revive its dynasty — has apparently made Carroll change his mind.
In the last month Carroll has seen Bill Belichick, his contemporary at age 72, become the new head coach at the University of North Carolina.
There are three NFL teams in need of a head coach for the 2025 season: the Bears, New Orleans Saints and New York Jets. Carroll’s first head coaching job was with the Jets in 1994.
Why Chicago now? The Bears have had four head coaches in the last eight years. They have made the playoffs just twice in the last 14 seasons. They haven’t been past the wildcard round since the 2010 postseason when Chicago beat the Seahawks in the division playoffs to end Carroll’s first season leading Seattle.
Carroll reportedly is intrigued by coaching Caleb Williams. The Bears’ rookie franchise quarterback was the first-overall choice in the 2024 NFL draft. Williams won the Heisman Trophy in 2022 with USC.
Carroll coached two Heisman winners at USC: Carson Palmer in 2002 and Matt Leinart in 2004.
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