Heading into the 2022 season, the Seahawks were expected to be one of the worst teams in the NFL. Trading Russell Wilson away suggested that they were beginning a rebuild, and the betting odds put their over/under win total at just 5.5 games, third-worst in the NFL.
So when the Seahawks went 9-8 and made the playoffs, head coach Pete Carroll deserved a lot of credit. And many of his players weren’t happy that Carroll wasn’t named a coach of the year finalist on Wednesday.
Responding to a tweet from the NFL that listed five coaches — Nick Sirianni, Kyle Shanahan, Brian Daboll, Sean McDermott and Doug Pederson — as coach of the year finalists, Seahawks safety Quandre Diggs spoke up for Carroll.
“Man I don’t understand how Pete isn’t a finalist!” Diggs wrote. “Not a top 5 coaching job with a team everybody expected to be sorry? Y’all killed me last year when I said “Pete told me we’re not rebuilding we’re trying to win now!” once i re-signed!”
Multiple teammates retweeted Diggs’ post in support.
Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith, who was named on Wednesday as one of the finalists for the NFL’s comeback player of the year award, was more succinct in making the same point. Smith replied to the tweet listing the coach of the year finalists with the words, “Peter Clay Carroll.” Multiple teammates approvingly retweeted that tweet as well.
Carroll has never won the NFL’s coach of the year award and has never even come close in the voting. He was named college football coach of the year in 2003 at USC.