knownone":3fux5pfc said:
TwistedHusky":3fux5pfc said:
Which begs the obvious question:
Which pathway has the best chance at giving this team another visit to the SuperBowl?
1 - Wilson without Carroll
2 - Carroll without Wilson
My own pick is #1. It gives us a higher ceiling but it also completely removes the floor.
With Carroll you at least know the team will never be 'bad'. That is actually important.
Regardless, I don't know how Carroll and his approach is going to work with Wilson, if Wilson wants to see better results from himself in the regular season or greater success for himself in the playoffs.
Eh, if Carroll wasn't 67 I would take Carroll without Wilson.
The only coach better than Pete at getting the most out of his players is Belichick. Give Pete a top 15 QB and he'll consistently get you to the playoffs.
In a scenario where we trade Wilson for draft picks, this team would essentially be entering the same window as the 2012 Seahawks. We'd have cap space to invest in the defense, a multitude of first rounders to bolster our depth, and potentially a rookie QB.
Imagine a scenario where we trade Wilson to the Giants. We use the Giants first-round pick on one of the big-name defensive players, Nick Bosa, Josh Allen, etc. Then we add a QB with our first round pick. Suddenly, we're looking at a team with it's 2 most important positions on cost control contracts for the next 4-5 years. And we've only spent one of the drafts picks from the haul we'd get for Wilson.
Obviously, I don't want to trade Wilson. But if we're talking about,
what gives this team the best chance of getting to another Superbowl, I would take Pete Caroll in that scenario in a heartbeat over Wilson on a 35+m/year and some random offensive coach.
Pete Carroll will never touch another Super Bowl again. I don't think he is a bad coach, but his philosophy has some major holes in it. Carroll likes playing a game of attrition. Pete wants to run the good ol' Mohammed Ali rope-a-dope strategy. Playing on the backfoot, dodging the punches until the other team tires themselves out, and then at the 11th hour striking while the other team is winded. This style of play makes it so games are always close. We generally always have a good defense, and our offense rarely turns the ball over. This results in the Seahawks hanging with talented teams, but also letting inferior teams stick around. We neither blow out, or get blown out.
The toxic differential is extremely important, but playing solely for not screwing up takes away all agency you have in the game. The Seahawks play a style of football that leaves little room for error, and are often times too slow to transition when need be.
2013 - 2014 was an oddity. Carroll will never repeat those two seasons. There are good reasons to think he won't. First off, Carroll had a leg up being in the college game. Many of the guys he drafted were players he had intimate knowledge of. He either recruited them in the past, or played against them on a regular basis. Carroll also had another advantage, he was an innovator. The conventional wisdom when Carroll came into the league, is that big corner backs were a liability in coverage. Their hips were too tight, they didn't have the agility to keep up with smaller receivers, etc. Carroll did think that way. In fact, he correctly assessed that wide receivers were getting taller, and bigger in frame. As a result he was able to grab guys like Richard Sherman, Browner, Maxwell, etc for pennies. Players that others thought could not play in the NFL at a high level, thus were ignored.
Carroll's second advantage is he knew how to take advantage of tweener pass rushers. Guys like Clemons were not highly regarded because of physical stature. He knew how to bring guys in such as Brock, Clemons, and he was able to identify players that were productive, but didn't fit the mold of your typical pass rusher in Bennett and Avril. As a result he got them for cheap. On defense, Carroll had an eye, and he had a place for players that were considered a-typical. Predictably this meant he took players that others relegated to the scrap heap, and found roles for them. He turned the undesirables into the desirable, there was no competition for these types of players. He had free reign to bring in his guys for practically nothing.
The final, and most important advantage that the Super Bowl 'Hawks team had was the price. Our team was made up of the broken toys bin. Most of our players were on their rookie contracts, and as a result the Seahawks were able to pick up some really good depth players. Carroll had amassed talent in such a short span of time, and created one of the best rosters of all time.
Unfortunately nothing gold can stay. With Carroll's success came copy cats. Coordinators were poached, and the same strategies that worked for us, now were turned against us by the league. The short QB started to get a second look, big corners came in vogue, tweener pass rushers now had their place. The niche the Seahawks created had been copied, and now became the norm. This means the player pool we had shrunk as everyone wanted these types of players now. The days of the cheap, bargain players were now gone. Also gone was Pete Carroll's collegiate connections. The advantages Pete once had, no longer exist in today's NFL.
How has Carroll adapted? He the answer is he hasn't. He still plays the same style of football, and he seems more preoccupied with winning 'his way' than winning the game some times. He surrounds himself with yes men, and keeps coordinators such as Bevell and Cable long after their expiration date. Carroll's football will lead to a team that never really has a losing season, but I think I'm pretty safe in saying, the golden era of Pete is over. It's going to be a business as usual from here on out. Expect 10-6 type of seasons with an early exit from the playoffs. That isn't the worst thing in the world, just ask the Browns.
That being said, it really is frustrating to watch Wilson's career be wasted. He's too good to keep on such a short leash.
