⚡️ 3 choices that jump-started the Seahawks ⚡️

None of the choices were easy.

Each amounted to a leap of faith.

But added up, these three decisions made over a span of 16 months helped put Seattle back in the pole position of the NFC playoffs.

As the Seahawks prepare to play San Francisco on Saturday night, it’s worth looking back at those three moments to show the guts and intuition it took to get here.

🛑 Pivot Point 1: Letting go of an iconic coach

Before Baltimore fired John Harbaugh and Pittsburgh parted ways with Mike Tomlin, it was the Seahawks who decided that being perpetually good wasn’t good enough.

That’s not a knock on Pete Carroll. He is unquestionably the best coach in Seahawks history. He is, in my opinion, one of the very best football coaches of his generation. Right up there with Bill Belichick, Nick Saban and Andy Reid with the distinction that Carroll was the only one of those guys to win a title at both the college and pro level.

Seattle was still winning under Carroll. They just weren’t truly contending. Not for a championship.

In Carroll’s first seven seasons, Seattle won nine playoff games including a Super Bowl. In the next seven seasons, the Seahawks won one playoff game and never advanced past the divisional round of the playoffs.

Now I’m not going to pretend I know the precise logistics of how the Seahawks decided to move on from Carroll after the 2023 season. Furthermore, I tend to be suspicious of anyone who claims insider knowledge of Jody Allen’s decision-making process about this or anything else. The sports franchises that Paul Allen owned have always been something of a black box at the top.

However, this was a decision that was made at the very top of the franchise, and that’s because under Pete, the Seahawks never had a conventional organizational hierarchy.

Pete didn’t report the GM, John Schneider, and John didn’t report to Pete. They weren’t equals per se. Pete technically had the final say, but he wasn’t John’s boss, either. They usually referred to it as a partnership.

When the Seahawks decided to move on from Carroll, that was a decision made by Jody Allen, and it effectively provided a hard reboot of the franchise’s football operations.

🚧 Pivot point 2: New coach, who ‘dis?

It had been understood for a number of years that whenever Carroll left the Seahawks, Schneider would be the one who hired the next coach.¹

It was essentially a succession plan. I’ve even heard this was written into Schneider’s contract at some point though I’ve never seen the contract nor did I hear this from someone who was part of the negotiations. It may have been an informal agreement that whenever Pete moved on, Schneider would be the one in charge.

When the Seahawks let Carroll go in January 2024, there was no doubt about what would happen next: Schneider was in charge. Carroll said so himself.

“I’m so excited for you to have this opportunity,” Carroll said from the stage during his farewell press conference.

The first decision was probably the biggest Schneider will make: He needed to find a new coach.

NFL teams often toggle between different archetypes.

They’ll go from an innovative offensive-minded coach to a fire-breathing disciplinarian or from a first-time head coach to someone who’s had a couple of chances.

There was a little bit of that here. Carroll was the oldest coach in the league, and Mike Macdonald became the youngest when Seattle hired him.

However, both Carroll and Macdonald had a background on the defensive side of the ball. Each were adamant about the need to run the ball.

The most significant difference wasn’t age, though, but defensive template.

I would never call any NFL defense was “simple,” but Carroll’s was more straightforward than most. A lot of what is called “Cover 3,” a zone passing defense in which two corners and a safety are each responsible for keeping a lid on one-third of the field. Carroll didn’t want his players slowed down by overthinking, trying to remember what they should do next. He wanted them confident from experience, flying around the field.

In comparison, Macdonald’s system is more complex or “more multiple” as coaches tend to say. He switches between coverages instead of having one primary scheme. Up front, players rotate through the various spots, which Macdonald refers to as pressure “stations.” The formations themselves don’t change nearly as much as the guys who are occupying the spots.

Prior to Macdonald’s arrival, the Seahawks had spent six seasons trying to resuscitate a defense, which had never fully recovered from that Thursday night in Arizona in 2017 when Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor and Cliff Avril played what turned out to be their final game for the franchise.

Over Macdonald’s two seasons, the defense has steadily improved and this season allowed the fewest points in the league.

✌️Pivot point 3: Who be the QB?

Feb. 25, 2025

March 7, 2025

It was a hell of a change of direction, that’s for sure, which resulted in Seattle trading its starting quarterback for the second time in three years.

Brady Henderson of ESPN.com has put together the best timeline of exactly how it all transpired.

The short version: The Seahawks were willing to move forward with Smith as quarterback; they offered him an extension. However, they didn’t feel their future was hanging in the balance, either. When Smith was unreceptive to the offer of a contract extension, they decided that Sam Darnold was a very viable alternative. He was also a little cheaper and younger.

This past season has certainly validated Seattle’s approach as Darnold was selected for the Pro Bowl and Smith was intercepted 17 times, most of any quarterback in the league.

I think it’s very possible Smith could have had a very good season had he stayed in Seattle. It’s also possible that Darnold’s tendency to commit turnovers will ultimately cause Seattle to look for an upgrade at that position.

I also think if you pause to look back at the decisions that Seattle has made over the past two years, you can see that the Seahawks have not let the fear of getting worse stop them from making changes.

Moving on from Carroll was a risk.

So was trusting Schneider to choose a new coach.

So was trading the starting quarterback.

None of those decisions were particularly easy or straightforward.

But add them up, and it explains how Seattle has gone from a team that has been pretty good to one that is actually in position to be great.

This week’s episode of “Say Who, Say Pod” is a little different. We interviewed Chris Peterson and talked about everything from the current state of college football to his view on Demond Williams’s return to Washington, and the path the quarterback took to get there.

1  I’m not sure when precisely this occurred. My best guess would be back in January 2021 after the Seahawks finished 12-4 and the Lions were rumored to be interested in hiring Schneider to be their GM.