Resigned Holmgren knows Seahawks may need major changes

RENTON, Wash. -- For the first time in 17 years as an NFL head coach, Mike Holmgren doesn't have an answer.

For the first time since the early 1970s, before he began coaching high school freshmen in San Francisco, he doesn't need one.

It's an odd, unknown world for the 60-year-old Holmgren. He realizes he has no say in the Seahawks' evaluation of these final six games, with Seattle out of the postseason chase for the first time since 2002.

"Those decisions are no longer going to be my decisions to make, or to even be involved in those decisions, really," Holmgren said.

It's a jarring first step in the transition to his self-described sabbatical from football in 2009. He is weeks away from leaving the organization he turned around soon after he arrived as coach and general manager in 1999. He led Seattle to five consecutive playoff appearances and its only Super Bowl in 2006.

Jim Mora, the defensive backs coach and former head coach of the Falcons, is already signed to replace Holmgren following the season finale on Dec. 28 at Arizona.

Holmgren, the league's winningest active coach and 10th all time with 172 victories, believes fundamental changes may be needed to this 2-8 team to rebound next season.

He said he believes injuries to quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and 13 other starters are the primary reason Seattle has fallen so far, so fast.

"But that's not the only thing, now. We've got to look hard at this thing -- people are going to have to look hard at this," Holmgren said, referring to Mora and the staff of team president Tim Ruskell. "And be real honest about it, like I asked the players to be when they looked at the film, and see: Do we have enough? Is it good enough? If it is, let's go. If it isn't, you make changes."

Holmgren said flatly there will not be an early transition period in which Mora assumes more responsibility over the final six games.

The players see Holmgren is still in charge, just with a rapidly approaching expiration date.

"We don't look at him any different," fullback Leonard Weaver said. "I don't think that is a big ordeal or drama. We all know that Mike is leaving. We all know that Jim is coming in. We are all mature enough to handle the situation."

Yet Holmgren knows his players are watching to see if he will figuratively take his sabbatical early. They know he has never been in this situation: leading a team that had Super Bowl aspirations through six somber weeks of merely trying to be a spoiler.