Insider Divulged Seahawks’ Top Replacement Option for Pete Carroll

It is hard to imagine the Seattle Seahawks without Pete Carroll on the sideline, but there continues to be rumors about the coach potentially retiring. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported that the Seahawks are “updating contingency plans” in case Carroll retires this offseason.

“The Seahawks always are evaluating and updating contingency plans in the event longtime coach Pete Carroll, now 72 years old, decides to walk away,” Rapopor and Pelissero detailed on January 7, 2024.

“Seahawks chair Jody Allen usually meets with Carroll and general manager John Schneider in the days after the season concludes — which could be extended by a playoff run, with a win Sunday over the Cardinals plus a Packers loss to the Bears gets Seattle in — any decisions will wait until then. Carroll is under contract through 2024, with an option for 2025 that can be exercised in the offseason.”

If Carroll does walk away, who is the leading candidate to be the next Seahawks head coach? ESPN’s Ed Werder believes Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn would be a top candidate in Seattle.

“Would expect Dan Quinn to be high on the list if Pete Carroll doesn’t return,” Werder detailed in a January 7, 2024 message on X.

This tracks with what Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reported earlier this season. There continues to be buzz around the NFL that Quinn would be a top candidate to replace Carroll (pending retirement).

Despite the Seahawks’ inconsistent end to the season, these reports indicate the decision on Carroll’s future would be his own to make. Carroll has given no public indication that he desires to walk away from coaching. Quinn has familiarity with the Seahawks as the team’s defensive coordinator during Seattle’s Super Bowl runs in the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

“… I’d say I’m less sure of it [Carroll returning] than I have been in recent years,” Breer wrote in a December 14 mailbag article. “Going into this year, it sure looked like the Seahawks were creeping closer toward having the kind of core group of players they did in Carroll’s early years, with a very solid 2022 draft class coming back and the ’23 class bursting with promise.

“… Because, while coming into this year I thought that infusion of young talent might keep Carroll around for a while, if the coach doesn’t think he’s that close, it could alter his decision on returning for next season (during which he’ll turn 73),” Breer added.

“And the idea that Seattle would try to get Cowboys DC Dan Quinn (who was Seattle’s DC for its two Super Bowl trips a decade ago) if Carroll were to retire has been floated around a little. Which … the Seahawks could do a lot worse than that, if this were to be it.”