I remember reading something on Carroll at some point after he got here. I think it might have been after the superbowl win, I can't remember. It went into insane detail about how Pete Carroll does things HIS way. He developed his own overall philosophy of how he wanted to Coach/Run/Build his teams. This overall philosophy is a combination of different specific details of how to run every phase of the team and all sorts of other things. I could be wrong but I was pretty sure there is a book he has about it.
I would tend to take this news seriously because Carroll would have told his coaches how he wants things done and would not bend on how he wants the team to be. I think that all the coaches that are on the staff have had in depth talks with Carroll as he makes sure they stay under the umbrella of what he wants them to do. I mean I know probably about all head coaches would do this, but I really get the feeling from what I had read that he allows pretty much no deviation from his plan because he does not want it watered down/changed/hindered by elements that are not as important to his schemes/philosophy.
As an example, I would bet Cable was told exactly what was required of him in making the most of talent they could bring in with the O-line and, big surprise, Cable stepped up to the challenge and told Carroll he could do what was required. Lower draft o-linemen, presumably, need time to develop because a lot of those players are so raw coming out of college they are really behind the curve. I feel like Carroll assessed that aspect of his team building against his total team vision and probably felt like the team could lean on the defense after that was built how he wanted it and allow the offense time to grow and develop.
This is all purely speculation on my part since I can't remember where/when I had read the article I had come across, but I would imagine that Carroll feels really good about going far next year already before they have even started the offseason.
My points for contention if that is in fact how he feels:
1. Poor discipline with the penalties, which did improve at the end of the season.(Talking about the volume of calls, not the severity of the penalties). Not every game was better but there were games in there where penalties were not a focus of discussion. I feel like Carroll will believe he can definitely get that fixed.
2. Injuries that kept difference makers off the field. Any given year anything can happen on the injury front and I feel like Carroll would hedge his bets that injuries would not mar next season as they did this one.
3. Kicking game. Lots of missed kicks that decided games(Yes, I know that other things happened in a lot of the games lost , but a lot of those kicks would still have led to some wins despite those other issues).(For me this was the biggest alarm bell before our season started. I could not believe we picked Walsh up. I had bad feelings about that, like most did, from the very beginning and felt like that was probably the biggest mistake of their offseason.)
4. Even though a lot of us see what we see, this offense was capable of great things at times with Wilson at the helm. Carroll will really want to get the running game back on track and they will get competition in here to go against Carson. My thought is that Carson and some other back will be our featured backs and i feel like McKissic will take over the Procise role. He probably sees the offense as being much better next year if they get the run game on track. He probably saw encouraging things from pieces on the 0-line and they will continue that process.
Assuming Fant is healthy and he continues to develop as it seemed he had, then he should be a solid piece next year. Pocic is looking to bulk up and I bet they feel he is a piece they can use going forward after gaining experience this year. Obviously, Britt will still be at center. If they somehow keep Brown then the oline would probably pretty much almost be set. With him i feel a lot more comfortable with those other pieces to start the year. That would be 4 of 5 starters already on the team before the offseason really starts. If Brown is not retained I feel a lot more like a lot of the other folks on here upset as hell it looks like Bevell and Cable will be staying. Carroll must feel like they have more to work with this offseason on the oline than they did last year IF he does retain Cable.
