Pete Carroll: I’ve been here a long time, I probably wouldn’t have without Russell Wilson

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Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said after losing on Monday Night Football that his team — and he personally — needs Russell Wilson.

Carroll acknowledged that he might not have lasted long in Seattle without Wilson, and that the Seahawks’ current three-game losing streak is due in large part to Wilson’s injury.

“I’ve been here a long time. And if we didn’t have Russell, I probably wouldn’t have been here a long time. Think of all the magic he’s created through the years,” Carroll said. “One of the winningest quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. And it’ll be really fun when he comes back and plays football again for us this year.”

Carroll says the 2-5 Seahawks are going to keep fighting until Wilson returns.

“We miss him, and in the mean time we’re going to keep fighting and clawing and doing what we can,” Carroll said.

Carroll said he does not know when Wilson will return from his finger injury.

46 responses to “Pete Carroll: I’ve been here a long time, I probably wouldn’t have without Russell Wilson

  1. I’ll never understand why any NFL team would go into a season with Geno Freaking Smith as your backup. You could have traded for Nick Foles the greatest backup QB in NFL history.

  2. Probably one of the most self aware comments an NFL coach has ever made. Coaches have egos too and some like the guy in NE have so much success with a great QB they start to believe they can do so with anyone.

  3. Pete acknowledging the fact that players win games, not coaches. Belichick should take notice, with his losing record before and after Brady

  4. It’s probably almost time to hang it up Pete, honestly. I remember when Mike Holmgren’s last years here and this feels exactly like it. Down slide, sorry. Russell won’t be able to salvage the season. This was a Defensive team first that ran first and threw the ball last. We need that swagger back. This Seahawks team is very soft and it starts with you and Russell. This will be a huge decision to see if they will salvage there future of the franchise by trading Russell.

  5. I was screaming (along with Michael Symon) to anyone who would listen to have the Cleveland Browns draft Russell Wilson. He was released from his scholarship at N.C. State only to promptly take over the starting job at Wisconsin and lead them to the Rose Bowl. That is a man who can adjust on the fly. I knew he was really going to be good and he has not disappointed.

  6. Usually when you look at the long tenured coaches they have a hall of fame QB. Coaches that can’t find that QB don’t last very long.

    Geno isn’t horrible but he doesn’t have that extra something that Russell has that makes horrible play calling and bad drafting look good.

  7. We saw classic back up quarterback play last night. Two former first round picks who have started, backed up, and watched and learned from two of the best (Brees/Wilson). And both are still awful, make bad decisions, hang on to the ball to long, throw uncatchable balls….painful. I thought that Sean Payton would help Winston thrive, but doesn’t appear that’s the case. Without Kamara Saints would be no where. Hard to watch football with back up QB’s….

  8. Translation: “I have been riding Russ’ coattails for a long time now and without him I am mediocre at best”

  9. Maybe his affinity for Wilson was involved in his decision to throw in SB49 rather than just hand it off to Lynch.

  10. Translation: “I have been riding Russ’ coattails for a long time now and without him I am mediocre at best”
    ==========

    You better find a new interpreter.

    Carroll fielded the best D this side of Buddys Bears.

  11. Winston is heads and tails better then Geno Smith, not even close.
    Geno Smith shouldn’t even be a number 2 in the league. I question why Seattle went into the season thinking Smith would be a wise choice for a back up, that’s what the discussion should be.
    Can’t believe someone posted Winston is no better then Smith. Ha.

  12. Honest comment, Wilson is terrific. It’s true of almost all successful coaches and teams. Only three outliers in my lifetime. Ditka’s Bears, Gibb’s Washington teams, and Gruden’s Bucs (Dungy really)
    And truth be told, the QBs on those teams weren’t bad

  13. The D did its job. Geno Smith is not a serviceable back up. If teams still carried one, he would be an emergency 3rd-string QB.

  14. kmancowboys says:
    October 26, 2021 at 8:00 am
    We saw classic back up quarterback play last night. Two former first round picks who have started, backed up, and watched and learned from two of the best (Brees/Wilson). And both are still awful, make bad decisions, hang on to the ball to long, throw uncatchable balls….painful. I thought that Sean Payton would help Winston thrive, but doesn’t appear that’s the case. Without Kamara Saints would be no where. Hard to watch football with back up QB’s….

    —————————————————–

    Payton IS helping Winston thrive. Winston is making MUCH better decisions (no INTs in four of the six games they’ve played, only three for the year so far, and the Saints are 4-2). Also, Saints have been missing Thomas, and Deonte Harris. TreQuan Smith has clearly regressed. As for Carroll – kudos to him for his honesty. I get it, but you have to coach who you have. Payton is 11-5 when someone other than Brees starts at QB for the Saints

  15. Geno Smith is like having a flat spare tire and hoping it will hold air long enough to get you 10 feet further down the road. This guy has no talent and is also giving Carson Yutz as potentially the dumbest QB to ever play the game. And from what I saw of Winston, Yutz has a real challenge holding onto the crown. There are apparently two contenders that also have single digit IQ points.

  16. Holmgren’s frozen ‘stache says:
    October 26, 2021 at 8:56 am
    Translation: “I have been riding Russ’ coattails for a long time now and without him I am mediocre at best”
    ==========

    You better find a new interpreter.

    Carroll fielded the best D this side of Buddys Bears.

    ———-

    You mean the one against which Brady put up 350 yards, 3 TDs including two in the 4th quarter of the SB? That D?

  17. nhpats2011 says:
    October 26, 2021 at 8:42 am
    Translation: “I have been riding Russ’ coattails for a long time now and without him I am mediocre at best”
    ********************************
    I wouldn’t use the word mediocre, but some of the greatest coaches in history rode some pretty good coattails. Belichick/Brady. Walsh/Montana. Lombardi/Starr. Johnson/Aikman. Shanahan/Elway. Seifert/Montana-Young. Shula/Unitas-Griese-Marino. None of these coaches had to apologize for their HOF QB’s. Carroll doesn’t, either.

  18. Saints defense was too strong for Seattle. No run game whatsoever. The Saints themselves need a receiver or tight end threat badly. Kamara taking Wagner head on and carrying Wagner for a first down was an amazing play.

  19. The Jets can look forward to getting a (another) top five pick as Seattle will struggle to win another game this year. Pete has long outstayed his welcome. A divorce is coming will it be Pete retiring or Wilson being traded.

  20. Belichick/Brady. Walsh/Montana. Lombardi/Starr. Johnson/Aikman. Shanahan/Elway
    ==========

    Johnson/Emmitt Smith

    Shanahan/Terrell Davis

  21. Pete deserves his share of credit. He is a EVP. It’s his team and he built it. Wilson is a big part of it. I don’t like the comparison of Carroll without Russell or Belichick without Brady. How can you take away the best player a coach has and expect that he is a comparable.

  22. You mean the one against which Brady put up 350 yards, 3 TDs including two in the 4th quarter of the SB? That D?
    ==========

    Carroll passed on a victory in that game.

    Literally.

  23. nhpats2011 says:
    October 26, 2021 at 8:56 am
    You mean the one against which Brady put up 350 yards, 3 TDs including two in the 4th quarter of the SB? That D?
    ==========
    No, the D that held Manning and the Broncos to 8 points (43-8) in the previous SB. The D that led the league in points allowed, yards allowed, and turnovers for the first time since the ’85 bears. The defense that led the league in points allowed every year from 2012 – 2015. The defense that the NFL network ranked as the 5th best in all of NFL history and is often cited as having the best secondary of all time? One bad quarter when the team was heavily injured (Avril out, Sherman and Thomas needing surgery) doesn’t negate any of that.

  24. “I’ve been here a long time. And if we didn’t have Russell, I probably wouldn’t have been here a long time.”

    Why does this Carroll statement sound like a swan song for him, Wilson, or both?

  25. didnthearwhat says:
    October 26, 2021 at 6:41 am
    Pete acknowledging the fact that players win games, not coaches. Belichick should take notice, with his losing record before and after Brady
    _____________________
    Have you ever heard Belichick talk about himself? Every time someone starts to praise him he always says something along the lines of, “It’s the players that play the game and go out there and execute, and I’ve just been lucky to have had a lot of great players.”

  26. At USC he had one of the best QB’s in college history, Matt Leinart, not to mention Reggie Bush. Maybe his statement last night reflects on his success there, as well.

  27. A lot of people in here wondering why Geno Smith was even the #2 QB in Seattle to begin with. I imagine it’s because prior to this season Russell Wilson had never missed a game so Seahawks thought they could save money on their back-up QB. They probably would’ve been better off with someone like Mitch Trubisky or maybe even Dwayne Haskins, though who knows how big an upgrade Haskins is over Geno.

  28. kmancowboys says:
    October 26, 2021 at 8:00 am
    We saw classic back up quarterback play last night. Two former first round picks who have started, backed up, and watched and learned from two of the best (Brees/Wilson). And both are still awful, make bad decisions, hang on to the ball to long, throw uncatchable balls….painful. I thought that Sean Payton would help Winston thrive, but doesn’t appear that’s the case. Without Kamara Saints would be no where. Hard to watch football with back up QB’s….
    ———————————————
    I agree with everything except Geno Smith wasn’t a 1st round pick.

  29. I was jacked the moment Seattle drafted him. I drove 15 over the speed limit to get home to watch him in his rookie pre season. I made a blue green Wilson ball with the hand print…..9 years ago.
    It’s time to move on.

  30. I feel like there are a lot of parallels between Big Ben and Russell Wilson’s careers, but 6-7 years later. Early dominant super bowl teams that played physical football before transitioning into almost mvp-level qb-driven teams that contend but don’t quite win it all.

  31. Richard Sherman pointed out a fact a few years ago when he said the Hawks have kinda lost their way. Pete being in charge of football operations and Paul Allen gone, I just don’t see anyone in the organization who can change his ways.

  32. Well, the Geno experiment was fun. The playcalling didn’t help him, but he somehow managed to get worse every game. Whatever little doubt there was that Russ’s shortcomings were holding the team back, is now erased. The target is now squarely on Pete Carroll for the massive underachieving of the Seahawks.

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