The Seattle Seahawks certainly elected to shake up the status quo this offseason with the massive changes seen to their roster and coaching staff since the end of the 2017 campaign.
A third of the coaching staff was replaced and key veterans like Richard Sherman and Michael Bennett are no longer with the team. The team has mashed the reset button as they look to freshen things up for a team that missed the playoffs for the first time since 2011 last year.
Head coach Pete Carroll responded to comments made by Sherman and Bennett indicating that Carroll’s message had gotten stale over the years and they had tuned him out during meetings.
“The thing I would tell you about that is that we’ve been through a lot around here, we’ve grown tremendously together and all of that, and changes are inevitable,” Carroll said. “Sometimes, guys can’t hang with what’s expected for one reason or another, their growth, their development and all of that, and the best thing I can tell you is that they’re not here.”
It was a similar stance in 2010 when Carroll and General Manager John Schneider took over the franchise. The team made nearly 300 roster moves in 2010 as they searched for players that bought into their message and fit their mold. If a player didn’t buy in, he wasn’t there long.
Sherman said veterans had “kind of heard every story, every funny anecdote” that Carroll told. After Sherman blew up on the sidelines at coaches in 2016, Carroll had a team meeting to try to get the train back on the tracks only to have Sherman mostly dismiss the substance of the chat.
“Just talked about the mood of the team, guys coming together. We have a kumbaya meeting just about every year. Just the same thing,” he said at the time.”
Carroll said Bennett never brought a book to any of their team meetings. However, he said in an interview with Sports Radio 950 KJR last week that he couldn’t rule out Bennett reading a digital book on his phone or tablet instead.
The bottom line remains that Carroll wanted to rein in some control of his roster. Bennett and Sherman were among the longest-tenured players on the roster and had status in the locker room. If they were no longer onboard, it would make it difficult for Carroll to keep others pulling in the same direction.
Bennett and Sherman are no longer with the team and Carroll and Schneider look to reconstruct the roster again with a new group of disciples that are more currently invested in the team’s vision and messaging.