Seattle may have sweet enough deal to lure Carroll from USC
When Pete Carroll was last recruited as an NFL head coach, he said that wherever he went that club had to have a franchise quarterback. So he chose New England. After he was fired three years later, he promised that if anyone tried to hire him again it would be under one condition -- he had to have complete authority over personnel.
Welcome to Seattle, Pete.
In case you missed it, the Seahawks don't have a general manager. They had a laundry list of candidates to replace Tim Ruskell, but two of them -- Baltimore's Eric DeCosta and Philadelphia's Tom Heckert -- removed their names from consideration this week. Maybe they know something we don't but it seems as if the Seattle Seahawks have changed their minds and are going in a different direction now.
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It seems as if they're trying to hire their next GM and head coach with one move.
In recruiting Carroll, they're pursuing one of the most desirable and most successful head coaches on the college landscape. Carroll not only returned USC to the football map -- he put it at the head of the class with a record of 97-19 in his nine seasons there. Several NFL clubs have tried to pry Carroll loose from USC before, with Miami and Atlanta two of the most recent, but he never budged -- saying he was happier where he was.
So why would he consider leaving now? I don't know that he would. But let's say he's thinking about jumping -- there could be several reasons. First of all, there's the money. Because Microsoft co-owner Paul Allen owns the Seahawks, the high cost of doing business with Carroll is not a problem.
Second, there's the opportunity. After Carroll left New England, I always had the feeling he would return to the NFL, determined to prove to his critics that, yes, he could win on the pro level just as easily as he could at USC.
Third, there's the timing. USC's football program has been under scrutiny since stories broke in 2006 about Reggie Bush's alleged acceptance of thousands of dollars in cash from would-be marketing agents, and the school's compliance department last month began investigating Joe McKnight's use of a sport utility vehicle owned by a Santa Monica businessman.
Let's see, you have motive, opportunity, timing and money. From where I sit, it's easy to connect the dots and make a case for Carroll returning to the NFL.
"All I know," said one source close to the situation, "is that some people within the Seahawks this week were saying that something big was about to happen."
I don't know if they were talking about the firing of Jim Mora or the possible hiring of Pete Carroll, and if you ask me, I'd say it was the latter. But courting Carroll and actually tying him down are two different things. Carroll has had his opportunities before, but always, always, always there wasn't enough there to convince him to leave USC.
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| Pete Carroll was 33-31 as an NFL coach with the Patriots and Jets. (Getty Images) |
It's the way he would like it at the pro level, too, only I'm not sure that can happen or happen successfully. Coaches who serve as part-time GMs aren't all that successful, and I call Mike Shanahan to the witness stand.
Furthermore, when the Seahawks reached out to general manager candidates, they emphasized how important it was to them to have someone who was independent of the head coach, someone who could run the football operations with complete authority.
Are you going to tell me that just because their short list got shorter this week they changed plans? Or, to put it another way, are you going to tell me they panicked?
Maybe. And maybe it was Carroll's willingness to listen that hastened the firing of Mora after only one season. Few saw Mora's dismissal coming, though some insiders said they thought the Seahawks had someone in mind when they made the move.
Makes sense to me. Why would you can a head coach after only one season unless you had, oh, say, a Carroll in the waiting room? And why would you wait to make the move -- unless, of course, you had another -- and what you considered a better -- option?
As I said, Carroll has demonstrated he's always willing to listen, but he's also demonstrated he could never take the plunge. So what makes this opportunity different? I recited several possibilities, but there's another factor that should cause him to hesitate, and that's the matter of a franchise quarterback.
Seattle can win with Matt Hasselbeck. In fact, the Seahawks won a lot with the guy, with four straight division titles and five consecutive playoff appearances on his resume. But the last two years have been nothing short of miserable, with Hasselbeck suffering too many injuries and interceptions and not throwing enough touchdown passes to make the Seahawks competitive.
You can look it up. Over the last two years, they're 9-23, and Hasselbeck has 22 touchdown passes, 27 interceptions, a sore back and sore ribs.
Maybe Carroll figures he's OK with him for another two or three seasons. Mora did. Or maybe Carroll figures he sticks with Hasselbeck until Carroll can draft the next USC star. What makes this situation so intriguing is that the last time Carroll jumped, it had a lot to do with the franchise quarterback in New England. It was Drew Bledsoe, and Carroll had two winning seasons in three years with Bledsoe in charge.
But Bledsoe was 25 when Carroll arrived; Hasselbeck turns 35 next season.
"I don't know what to make of this," said one NFL general manager. "It makes no sense to me."
It does to me. Most coaches love to be courted, and Pete Carroll is no different. Maybe he figures he's gone as far as he can at USC. Maybe he figures the time is right to find another challenge. Or maybe this is another pitch that sails out of his strike zone. All I know is that in Seattle, he could have most of what he would be looking for as an NFL head coach, and maybe, maybe, this time that is enough.
