Commentary: K.J. Wright has strong opinions on slumping Seahawks. Is he right?

RENTON, Wash. – So … is K.J. right?

Anyone who’s been following him over the past couple of years knows that former Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright isn’t shy with his opinions. He doesn’t necessarily enjoy criticizing his old team, but like Simon Cowell appraising a vocally challenged auditionee, he says what he thinks must be said.

Wright’s comments were particularly incendiary Wednesday, when Seattle Sports 710 AM host Mike Salk played him a clip of Seahawks coach Pete Carroll answering a question about whether his message is getting through to the players.

“Ask them,” Carroll said. “Next.”

Wright’s interpretation?

“What I’m hearing from coach Carroll is that he’s sick and tired of these guys. He’s extremely frustrated,” Wright said. “He feels like that he’s preaching to ’em, he’s trying to be nice with them, but they’re just not receiving his message. So essentially, they don’t (care) what he’s saying at this point.”

Asked about the comments Thursday, Carroll said he hadn’t heard them and replied, “I need to talk to K.J.”

But what if this, and a slew of other thoughts from the former Pro Bowler, are actually on point?

Wright went on to say that there was “infighting” among players and that “it’s not about the opponents anymore … they’re fighting their own internal battles within the building.”

When I reached out to him Thursday afternoon, Wright offered some incisive commentary on Seattle’s defense – ranked 28th in the NFL – as well.

“If I go out there and I see the same personnel. If I go out there and I see the same guys out there on defense on a consistent basis. To say that they’re serious about winning, I have to question it,” Wright said.

Who would you put in instead?

“Man, I don’t care,” said Wright, emphasizing that a change is necessary to create a “shock” in the locker room. “They can’t be no worse than what’s out there.”

I brought up the “infighting” quote with Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner, Wright’s longtime teammate. He shook it off.

“I didn’t see the whole clip, but K.J. is a media person now, so I know how that goes,” Wagner said.

Wright is just one man, but he may very well be echoing the thoughts of a great number of Seahawks fans watching their team plummet.

A month ago, Seattle was 6-3 and atop the NFC West. Now they are 6-7 with the 10-3 Eagles coming to town Monday night.

So let’s go through some of the points. Is Carroll’s messaging growing stale?

Well, like “chemistry,” the thought of a coach “losing the locker room” is almost entirely contingent on a team’s record. It was a lot easier for the “message” to get through when you had Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas in the secondary with a prime Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch in the backfield.

Social media isn’t always the best place to gauge the consensus opinion of the public, but I’ve seen some folks argue that the 72-year-old Carroll’s best days are well behind him and it’s time for a change.

My main problem is that this notion became particularly prominent after the Seahawks just played three games – two vs. the 49ers and one vs. the Cowboys – against what might be the league’s best two teams. Let’s give Carroll until the end of the season before we start evaluating his capabilities as head coach.

“When you go on a four-game losing streak, everybody tries to find something, tries to create the reason, and especially people that’s not in the locker room,” said Wagner in a response Wednesday defending Carroll. “They try to come up with the reason, because you try to figure out what is going wrong.”

As for the defense? K.J. is correct in that it’s been atrocious. It gave up 31 points three games ago, 41 two games ago and 28 in last week’s loss to the Niners, who accumulated 527 yards of offense – the most by a Seahawks opponent all year.

But … is there really a better option on the bench? Are the struggles of cornerback Riq Woolen improved by a Michael Jackson? Is there a suitable replacement for safety Jamal Adams, even if he has been torched for a touchdown in back-to-back weeks?

I’m not sure how much of this is about leadership or messaging or infighting so much as it is that the Seahawks are a mediocre team falling to the league’s elite.

Still, something seems off. Way off.

Wright said Thursday that he has never seen Carroll this frustrated. I then asked if he sees something different in this year’s team compared with the ones that came before.

“I think the whole world is,” Wright said. “Everyone who knows Seahawks football is seeing something different with these guys.”

This four-game losing streak is Seattle’s longest since Carroll took over as coach. There aren’t a lot of signs that it won’t extend to five.

Wright said he doesn’t like going after his beloved Seahawks. Unfortunately, they haven’t given him any reason to stop.