After a year away from the NFL, former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll is ready to get back on an NFL sideline, and he has his eye on a specific sideline. There are currently three jobs that will be interviewing candidates for next season: the Bears, Jets, and Saints. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, it’s the job in Chicago that Carroll has his eyes on. 
Carroll has taken breaks from NFL coaching jobs in the past to much success. After his first stint as a head for the Jets, as a result of promotion from defensive coordinator, ended unceremoniously after one year, Carroll rebounded as a defensive coordinator for the 49ers before earning his second head coaching job with the Patriots, whom he took twice to the playoffs and with whom he never had a losing record. Despite the surface-level success in New England, team owner Robert Kraft fired Carroll after a late-season slide cost them a playoff spot in 1999.
Carroll then chose to become a head coach at the collegiate level, as opposed to returning to the NFL as a defensive coordinator again. After a rough 6-6 inaugural year as a college head coach with USC, Carroll quickly turned the Trojans into a powerhouse program, winning the conference seven straight years and winning back-to-back national championships in 2003 and 2004, not to mention just missing out on a three-peat after falling to Vince Young and the Longhorns in 2005.
Carroll turned his college success into another opportunity to coach in the NFL, landing the job in Seattle that he held for 14 years. In all that time, Carroll only had three losing seasons (twice going 7-9 and once going 7-10), amassing a career-record in Seattle of 137-89-1. He made the playoffs 10 times and twice made it to the sport’s season finale, winning the franchise’s only Super Bowl title. When the Seahawks narrowly missed the postseason last year due to a tiebreaker, Carroll and Seattle mutually agreed that he would step down from his post as head coach.
Nearly a year later, Carroll is ready to put his hat back in the ring. The question is: where could he go? This year’s crop of head coaching candidates has been deemed as a weaker class, especially after one of the stronger candidates, former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, made the decision to take a head coaching at the collegiate level with the North Carolina Tar Heels. Schefter’s report claims that Carroll is interested in the Chicago job, but is he a good fit?
The Bears have made it known in preliminary conversations about who will replace Matt Eberflus that they are hoping to bring someone in who can develop and mold rookie No. 1 pick Caleb Williams. While Williams shares a USC connection with Carroll, the two were never there at the same time. Additionally, Carroll’s defensive-minded background would require him to come in with a plan on which assistants he could bring in to develop Williams. The Bears’ supposed preference leads many to believe that an offensive-minded coordinator like Kliff Kingsbury or Ben Johnson would be a better fit, especially since Kingsbury was a mentor of Williams at USC just last year.
So, if not Chicago, what city seems to make more sense as Carroll’s next destination? The Jets have a history of hiring defensive-minded head coaches, as well as a history of hiring guys named “Pete Carroll.” They just fired a former defensive coordinator in Robert Saleh, but their foray with Adam Gase, a former offensive coordinator, was brief and unsuccessful. Before that, was a defensive coordinator in Todd Bowles and, before him, Rex Ryan, who led the team to their last playoff appearance and back-to-back AFC Championship Game appearances in 2009 and 2010. There may be a bit of bad blood over his firing the first time around, but over the last 30 years, he may have let bygones be bygones.
The Saints are the other option, though a few more pop up at the end of the season. Regardless, Carroll is ready to take a stab at another NFL job, and though he seems to favor Chicago early on, he may have to keep his options open and explore the other positions available to him.
He would not be a bad choice…at least interview him
I admire the man, but the Bears need to turn the page. Ben Johnson with a new GM. Poles had his chance.
Well whomever Da’ Bears want
Maybe Ditka…..he did move back to Chicago from Naples Florida
Agree Poles had his chance. Biggest problem is that as a former OL, he couldn’t build an OL. Taking Odunze without an OL to protect Williams didn’t work out.
PC is an experienced HC. BJ isn’t. Does BJ have any clue about D and ST? Haven’t they had enough bad play from rookie HCs going thru a learning curve?
Pete Carroll does not strike me as a guy who will reign in a team that basically quit halfway through the season. As much as Ben Johnson intrigues me, we have seen an OC type of pick come in and louse it up bad. I would rather see a guy like Vrabel coaching the Bears: An established somewhat successful and respected head coach take the reigns. Not an old HC who apparently just wants another chance to kill some time before retiring for good. Sorry, one Tony LaRussa was bad enough in this town.
Also, does Poles go? If you look over his work with draft, FA and architecture of the team so far, he should. However, you have to hope the next GM hits, and then what does the incoming GM do? Strip it all down and try to build it over again?
Do you saddle the new GM with your QB, or let him move him and pick his own guy?
I think the time would be right, which the need to get a HC in the building and with all of these draft picks, including a top 10 (heck I think they still have a chance for a top 5), but then again are they looking at another rebuild as well?
Pete Carroll is a super motivator. If you’ve seen his teams, they play hard from beginning to end, even in pre-season. He knows defense and has won a SB. Vrabel is a tough HC, his teams play physical, but Pete’s resume is better. Both will need good OCs, and with Caleb, the time is now to develop him. Vrabel had Arthur Smith who isn’t an exciting OC, and Carroll had Shane Waldron who is now fired.
The traditional process is to hire a GM who hires his HC. Bears didn’t do that with Poles. Eberflus was already there. And Fields was there when Poles was hired. Ass backwards. I’d say Poles biggest mistake was not getting a better OL (since he is a former OL), he’s whiffed on his OL FA signings. Then there was Claypool disaster. In hindsight, would you rather he had a better OL or drafted Odunze?
Biggest mistake for them was not aggressively pursuing Jim H or Sean Peyton. Both are among the best in the league at developing QBs. After decades of bad HCs the Bears failed by not going after the best available, which the franchise and fans deserve.
So there’s the conundrum, best HCs are D minded and will need good OCs, while Johnson is the best to develop Caleb, but will need a big learning curve as a rookie HC and need to bring the right staff with him (Saleh?) to succeed.
Yeah, but at 73 how long will Carroll be motivating a team? Would he take on what is likely at least a partial rebuild?
Define bad
Ha
I have to credit the writer. Not a word about Carroll’s age (73)
Have to wonder why someone his age would want the aggravation of coaching an organization as dysfunctional as the Bears.
Cause he will just phone it in like Fox basically did.
No more ‘LaRussa’s and ‘Fox’s please.
Man, I had the same thought. I had to re-scan the article to see if I missed it. Strange considering that his age is the #1 reason why the Bears would not be interested.
Carrol is a very good coach… He looks great physically speaking… Age is just a number until not…
I just had a vision of him paddle boarding on Lake Michigan.
…In January lol
That’s an interesting idea actually. The guy runs a strong program. Even though he’s old, he’s always been young and energetic at heart. The Bears desperately need competence.
I became fond of Pete over the years but he has a weakness for reclamation projects. How many washed up players would he bring to Chicago? He’d probably keep Marcedes Lewis around for another 10 years…lol.
On the plus side he has plenty of experience coaching teams with terrible offensive lines.
Pete Carrol is the youngest 73 year old on the planet. He still has plenty of gas left in the tank. The Bears would be lucky to have him.
No more retreats. Pete is too old. Won’t be around long. Not a good choice.
Retreads*
He might be up for USC job if Riley gets canned. Last time Trojans were feared he was @helm. The game evolves n leaves some behind sooner than others. There’s “use by” date before message n concepts grow stale. Worth it to have em back in league just to watch him n Jim Harbaugh compete against eachother. He’s still got the itch.
All 3 teams that have already fired their HC’s were all defensive minded coaches. Seems like it could lower the probability they go back to another defense minded choice. Plus the Bears with a #1 overall QB and a decent group around him (need to work on Oline) they may not want a long plan.
If Carroll had a strong OC he was going to bring in with him, it could sweeten the deal, but I have no idea who that would be.
Marvelous Marvin Lewis is tan, rested and ready. He may not be spectacular, but he’s steady. Why take a flyer on an OC or DC who may or may not pan out? Marvin is a good coach who doesn’t micro-manage his players. He takes care of his players and that’s why they play so hard for him.
Marvin was great at getting his teams almost there year after year.. No thanks.
Never said he was great. But he was steady and you knew the team was going to at least be in the running for the playoffs.
Marvelous Marvin Lewis is neither rested nor ready. Mr. Marvelous has been Antonio Pierce consigliere since he took the Raiders helm last year. Last year AP had the attention of Marvin Lewis and Tom Coughlin, this year Marvin Lewis and Hue Jackson have AP direct attention. I am actually worried that they are making a move to drive AP out and take over his position.
The Raiders could do a lot worse than Marvin and Hue. Hue is not head coach material, never has been if you bothered to ask those in Cincinnati. Marvin is ready to go and Pierce is obviously not going to last long.
Had Chicago only picked the obviously superior QB. I banged the table for a year that, while good, Caleb was not better than Jayden and few agreed with me. Not even pointing out him following Riley from OU to USC seemed to matter.
Good for him to capitalize financially on the media hype; not so good for Bears fans nor franchise.
I have no idea why Carroll would want to try climbing this kind of mountain ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Caleb is the QB for the Bears, no amount of hindsight or ‘look at me, I said…’ changes this. By the way, he his on a team with tons of issues on the offense that he has little to do with other than holding onto the ball too long, missing a guy, or over throwing a deep ball, all of which can be coached out of a player by a competent OC.
Sure Daniels is doing better, Daniels has Dan Quinn as his HC, just like Nix has Sean Payton. Look at ‘golden pick’ Stroud this season for evidence that one season does not make a career.
Caleb has had two worthless OC’s and 2 head coaches who did not know their ass from a whole in the ground (never mind an OL that has looked like trash at times).
In general, I just scoff at those who said ‘do not believe the hype on Caleb’, then ask ‘Why didn’t Caleb go 17-0 and throw for 6000 Yards and 100 TDs with no picks?! See? bust!”
That would be something.
There might nearer 5 open HC gigs and possibly 7 – so Petey might just get a gig
I think the new Bears coach should be under 100 years old.
The Bears owner has an I.Q under 100 so they are half way there 🙂
I don’t have many rules when it comes to the Bears new coach but one would be that he’s at least around 5o years younger than Vrginia McCaskey. Belicheck and Carroll need not leave the Nursing Home.
I say Vrabel as he is an established coach and still a bit younger who i think can instill some confidence in this club and weed out the quitters that appeared after that Washington game. I get Ben Johnson is the flavor of the month, but who knows about his coaching picks and how the Defense will be? We have seen OC type guys comes to the Bears only to look silly, same with other teams. Sometimes an OC or a DC are just that, cannot be a head coach at all, but just a good Coordinator
Surprised he’s not considering college teams now that his players are able to get paid. Then again, he can’t gain any advantage if they’re all able, and not just his players.
Well it wasn’t just his players. He could offer a good climate. Hot but not too hot. Very little humidity.
Jodie Allen loved Pete. She fired him for a reason. He is too far behind the ball on both sides of the ball. His OC and DC have to put up with his constant meddling. You guys can hire PC and I will be happy not because I care what Da Beats do but it means they will be mediocre for many years. Hopefully we can get a new QB. Odunze can have an amazing year too.
This is something (stupidly) the Bears would do. Hire a crusty old defensive-minded head coach. That’s not what this team needs. What it needs is an offensive-minded coach who is an assertive leader and guide and develop Caleb. HC experience would be a plus.
If Poles wants to save his job, and make this team look, at least, competitive, and respectable, then get a guy like Vrabel and let him have real input on who stays and who goes. Yeah, you need to worry about Williams and more importantly the offensive line, but that ship sailed when the Bears did not get a guy like Quinn or Payton when both were available.
Get a guy who will weed out the pretenders on the defense and hopefully get a OC that can do that on offense as well.
However since the Bears front office is allergic to giving up power I doubt this will happen.
So say hello to ‘LaRussa 2.0’.. Oops I mean Pete Carroll.
We’ve already seen Pete Carroll with the Bears. Anybody remember John Fox? You people all seem to have short memories if you forgot how that all worked out. I’d rather hire a hot young coach like Ben Johnson and fail than spend the few years I have left watching an old geezer flail about and drool all over himself.
Somebody has to do something about that offense: three points in an offense with D.J. Moore, Keenan Allen & Rome Odunze at receiver? Are we playing football or baseball? Did Caleb Williams hit a three run homer in the seventh inning?
I think the Offensive mindset all season was ‘Williams cannot turn the ball over’ This gets the QB in a protection mode and less confident to throw the passes that need to be thrown down the field and in tight spots.
Its also why I think we see a lot of 3rd and 4th quarter come backs as the Bears were often down and they had little to lose by letting Williams make those throws.