A year after the Seahawks went 12-4 and won the NFC West, they’re free falling.
After Sunday’s loss at home to a Cardinals team that didn’t have Kyler Murray, coach Pete Carroll was asked whether this is the most frustrated he’s been as coach of the team.
“Yes,” he said after the game, via Curtis Crabtree of KJR radio. “Absolutely. Not even close.”
It’s no surprise. They’ve had a winning record every year since 2012, and they haven’t lost nine games under Carroll since 2010 and 2011, his first two seasons with the team.
With seven games to go and seven losses already in the books, an 8-9 finish requires a 5-2 closing kick. The team has done little lately to suggest it’s ready to go 5-2.
The question then will become the changes that will be made after a lost season. Quarterback Russell Wilson may want out again. Already, fans are questioning whether they want Wilson or Carroll to return.
That leads to a more important question regarding the structure of the team. Jody Allen inherited the Seahawks from her brother, Paul, who died in 2018. Vulcan, Inc. manages the various properties owned and operated by Jody Allen. It’s not clear whether any one specific person has both the clear and direct authority and the will to make a big decision like changing the football team’s coach.
Allen presumably has the power, but does she have the inclination to use it? It’s a fair question; when football teams change hands within a family, sometimes family members don’t really care about the team the same way that the deceased owner did. In Cleveland, for example, Randy Lerner wasn’t all that engrossed in the Browns after his father, Al, died. In Seattle, the extent to which Jody Allen will be involved during the bad times is something many will be watching if the franchise continues to disintegrate.