I just don't think this is actually happening regardless of what he says. There is a ton of practive footage out there where you can tell Pete is one of the most hands on coaches in the league. He's admitted even this year when talking about game plans, schemes etc that its "we". Look at it this way since your angle is one of a defense of Pete.
My angle is not a defense of Pete, it's an implicit criticism for allowing his defense to be reprehensibly bad for two years straight with zero in-season improvement. Pete can gameplan all he wants, he can scheme all he wants, he can tell these coaches to do whatever - but it isn't getting done. The techniques are not being taught effectively, no one is on the same page, and
everyone is making errors. Tackling issues are a confidence issue, and you need to know your role to play confident. These guys aren't being brought up right. They look like a group of free agents with zero practice time that's been forced into action, for 2 years straight!
Pete is either bad at coaching defense, which I think is less likely than the alternative, or he's dictating the framework of what the coordinator needs to impart, and then the coordinator is implementing it terribly. Pete's a superintendent who used to be a teacher, but now he's writing the curriculum and trying to let his teachers shine. Problem is the teacher he decided to head his "class of defense" sucks wet dog ass, can't control his class, and no one is learning. That's the general idea of what I think is happening. Carroll is no longer the premier defensive mind in the NFL, but he's done a whole lot scheme-wise in his career and he has never been a poor coach when it comes to bringing up individual pupils and getting them to play nicely together.
The only route forward is a bringing in new DC who has a plethora of experience (and good track record) to steady the ship, or bringing in a young stud DC and surrounding him with a shit-ton of experienced positional coaches to lean on. No other options. If Clint is on the staff next year, or is planned to be on the staff next year, I want Carroll forced to resign as a "mutual" decision. And that
breaks my goddamn heart.
If what you say is true doesn't that show that Pete is a massive falure? This defense is 32nd in EPA and close in almost every metric for 2 YEARS now....if he is still hands off and its been 34 weeks of failure in a row game wise or 2 full years calander wise isn't that almost worse?
It isn't almost worse. It is worse. The former could be solved by ceding full defensive control to a new DC and focusing solely on motivation, development, and game management until retirement. The latter means he stuck with what 2022 brought us out of foolish, foolish pride... or misplaced loyalty. Neither are especially defensible.
That is way I say its ultimate Pete because both options are terrible for him. Either he is helpless and is just sitting back hoping his coaches figure it out even though he's an all time great defensive mind(which come on how feasible is that?) or He is involved and can't figure it out. Both are bad.
This is what I mean when I say that "ultimate culpability falls on Pete." It's not a cop out on my end. I think that's where I'm confusing people - my criticisms of Hurtt are full well criticisms of Pete as well. I just try to delineate what I logically think Hurtt is mainly responsible for vs. what I think Pete is responsible for. Hurtt is responsible for being completely overmatched in his role, and Pete is responsible for enabling this charade.
If it was one year and he was just trying to get through the season I would understand but that isn't the case. Throw in the fact that unlike most coaches he's actually in charge of the player acquisition as well! That's why I'm baffled when people want to cut the DC but not the guy who's in charge of it all AND has his hands in every aspect of it.
I think the player acquisition title is a bit misleading. I don't think this means Pete is dictating every decision. If the majority of these choices weren't delegated to John Schneider, John Schneider would be gone and he would've been gone like 7 years ago to run his own show. John is running the ship on draft day, he's probably the one pretty much fully composing the free agent board (with Pete's input, but not his direction) and he's coming to Pete to make collaborative decisions as any GM should with his head coach. Pete probably has pulled rank a good few times, but I'm sure it isn't frequent. Again, John could easily just get another prestigious GM job pretty much instantly.
I get what you're saying with the last sentence, but Pete has coached winning units for the vast majority of his career, including likely another one this year despite increasingly obvious flaws. That indicates savvy, it indicates competence beyond the initial impression for us fans, and it indicates worth. For Hurtt, I think that he's responsible for a lot of the glaring stuff on defense through being ill-suited for coordinator roles, and I also don't owe him anything because he's never proven any sort of aptitude in his role. Track record makes one easier to justify keeping than the other.