Pete Carroll’s contract likely next on Seahawks’ to-do list
Sunday’s announcement that the Seahawks and general manager John Schneider had agreed to a new contract may have only kicked off what could be a busy week for the team heading into the beginning of training camp Saturday.
By the time players take the field for that initial workout of the 2016 season, coach Pete Carroll could have a new contract, as well.
Like Schneider had been, Carroll is entering the last year of his current contract, signed in April, 2014.
That fact has led to some understandable consternation among fans anxious to see the team do something to keep the most successful coach in franchise history in the fold, with some equally inevitable wondering about why it’s taken so long.
Sources, though, have indicated throughout that there’s no real drama, no reason to have been worried about Carroll remaining with the Seahawks. Instead, one source said it’s mostly been a function of the way the team – and Carroll – wanted to handle the offseason.
The Seahawks have always had a pretty clear order to their offseasons – free agency, the draft, then taking care of their own free agents entering the final year of their deals.
It’s thought Carroll and the organization wanted to get through that part of the offseason (as well as the paying out of contracts) first before turning to taking care of those in administration, with Carroll likely wanting Schneider’s situation settled before the team took care of him (as was the case a few years ago when Schneider signed a deal through 2016 and Carroll then followed suit later).
While the organization has not announced it, one source said team president Peter McLoughlin also recently agreed to a new contract, another thing on the organization’s offseason to-do list.
Carroll, of course, never explains it quite this way, addressing all questions about his contract with a smile and a quick “I’m good” or something similar, which can feed some public mystery.
But the expectation is that a new deal with Carroll – and the end to any questions and mystery – is likely coming soon.
Carroll is thought to be making at least $7 million a season with some speculating he makes more (teams do not typically announce salaries for coaches) and a new deal would likely mean at least something of an increase that would assure he remains among the highest-paid coaches in the NFL.
Regardless of the contract, though, Carroll’s future with the Seahawks is secure for as long as he wants it to be.
And while he turns 65 in September, he has said on several occasions he has no real timetable for how long he wants to coach. Those who know Carroll say it’s unlikely he would want to turn a Super Bowl-caliber team over to another coach anytime soon.
That could mean that at some point the question will shift to whether Carroll might take a run at a record shared by Marv Levy and George Halas, each Hall of Famers who coached until they were 72, the oldest in NFL history.