Pete Carroll turned 73 in September.
Don’t tell that to anyone who’s played for him recently.
“He runs more than we do,” Seahawks linebacker Derick Hall, who played for Carroll last year, told the Sun-Times on Thursday. “He comes out on the field and he’ll be running 100[-yard dashes] and throwing deep balls.
“You don’t see too many people that age who are able to have that athleticism, that kind of physical structure to themselves — and to be able to go out and do it on a consistent basis, like he does every day coming to work.”
Carroll, who was fired by the Seahawks in January, has the energy to want to return to coaching in the NFL. The Bears have one of the league’s three vacancies after firing Matt Eberflus the day after Thanksgiving and watching interim coach Thomas Brown struggle in an admittedly difficult situation.
Carroll’s former players would be all for a return.
“Coach Carroll, man, is a special human being,” Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith said after Thursday’s 6-3 win at Soldier Field. “He's a believer. He's a guy always going to be upbeat. He's always going to fight, and he has one way about him. That's what I love about him. I think we're very much the same in that way. We just go. There is no stop. … Just believe in us and just go.
“Coach Carroll can help out any team and anybody. I'm a big advocate of his, and I know he is of mine. I love that guy.”
The Bears should want to hear from Carroll, who went to the playoffs 10 times in 14 seasons with the Seahawks. He went to two Super Bowls, winning one. Carroll also won two national championships in nine years at USC long before Bears quarterback Caleb Williams went to school there.
If the Bears are interested in transforming their culture, Carroll makes more sense than almost any other available coach.
“He’s a player’s coach,” Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon, an Illinois alum, said. “A lot of players are going to gravitate to him as soon as he gets there … He knows how to make work don’t feel like work.”
Carroll “makes the job fun,” Hall said.
“You come to work every day knowing what to expect,” Hall said. “He’s overall a great leader, great coach. He’s been doing this thing a long time. If that’s what he drives for and attacks, I wish him nothing but the best.”
The question, though, is what exactly the Bears are looking for in Eberflus' replacement. Is it the best coach for the short term? An offensive mind who can grow with Williams over the next decade? A CEO? Or someone who calls plays on either side of the ball?
Carroll would be a short-term fix as a CEO-style coach. Despite all his energy reserves, it’s hard to believe he’d coach more than a few more seasons in a league where only 12 coaches were 50 or older when the 2024 season began.
It’s illogical — and illegal — to dismiss anyone because of their age, of course. Bears president/CEO Kevin Warren doesn’t figure to — he saw first-hand the impact of a culture-changing veteran head coach when he was in his formative years with the then-St. Louis Rams. At the end of the 1999 season, Dick Vermeil became the oldest coach at the time to win the Super Bowl. He was 63.
Some of the Bears’ candidates will be about half Carroll’s age, though. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who remains their most likely top target, is 38. Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady, who is mentoring the likely MVP in Josh Allen, turned 35 in September. Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, whom the Bears passed over as their play-caller in January, is 45. Mike Vrabel, who has six years of head coaching experience with the Titans, was born a month before Carroll’s 24th birthday.
The first three would be more in line with what the team needs most — someone to mentor Williams — and what they’ve done in the past. When he was hired in 2015, John Fox became the first Bears hire with previous head coaching experience since Paddy Driscoll in 1926. Every coach the Bears have employed since — Matt Nagy, Eberflus and Brown, the interim — all took the head coaching reins for the first time in their careers, at any level, at Halas Hall. At least Marc Trestman had run a CFL team.
Then there’s the issue of power structure. Since general manager Jerry Angelo took over in 2001, the Bears have operated with the GM over the head coach. That wasn’t the case in Seattle, which hired Carroll before GM John Schneider. It wasn’t until the team parted ways with Carroll in January that Schneider was put in charge of both the coaching staff and personnel.
Would Carroll be willing to work under GM Ryan Poles? Would Poles be interested in a coach who wouldn’t? Would Warren?
If the Bears value changing the culture as much as they claim, they’d have to consider it.
“I loved playing for him — I would have wanted to play more for him. …” said Seahawks defensive end Leonard Williams, who was traded to the team in the middle of last season. “I think he’s a great coach. If he wants to come out of retirement or whatever the case is, I’m rooting for him.”
