Pete's still behind. 49ers & Rams have superior staffs.
Pete in many seasons has tried new things, and every time at the first sign of adversity he falls back to what he is comfortable with.
1) Rope-a-dope.
2) Vanilla 3 deep coverage on defense. Giving easy reads to the opposing QB, not giving them anything deep, but letting them have everything else. Can't get off the field as a result, hang on, survive.
3) Simplified offense, run it up the gut, chuck it deep, cool with punting. As long as the score is close and you're not turning it over, it's a win in Pete's book.
The major problems with 2 and 3 is predictability. It makes it too easy on opponents, and too hard for your players to perform. The young coaches in the league take an opposite approach. They try to mask every thing they are doing so you can't get a bead on what is coming next.
Some examples:
McVay likes to run all of his plays out of every formation and does his best to make it all looks the same. So you cannot tell if it is a run? pass? PA? to the left? Right? Blending motion and tempo it can cripple opponents and when it is going well defenses have to go simple so to not have any busts.
On defense, what has become the new thing the last couple of seasons is showing 2 high coverage presnap, but on any given play the safeties are going to rotate and play a different coverage post snap. Confusing the QB, which creates more turnovers and sacks. The Seahawks were abysmal in this area and it's why Norton was fired. They played hard on defense as a unit, but they were so schematically outclassed it was laughable. Anyone who said the defense was good last year got exposed, as well.
Pete Carroll gonna Pete Carroll in the end, unfortunately. Week 1 will be awesome though, or until Pete pulls the plug.