The Seahawks are NFC West champions for the first time since 2020, a No. 1 seed in the playoffs for just the fourth time ever, and will get next weekend off while the rest of the teams in the NFC side of the postseason bracket fight to determine who will join Seattle in the divisional round.<\/p>\n
As for Carroll, he was fired Monday after his one season as Las Vegas Raiders coach resulted in a 3-14 record.<\/p>\n
More: Ex-Seahawks coach Pete Carroll fired by Raiders<\/a><\/p>\n The juxtaposition of where the Seahawks and Carroll stood on Monday hammered home why Seattle made the move it did when it did, especially when you consider the Seahawks ended the year with a plus-191 point differential while the Raiders had a minus-191 point differential in 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cPete was let go. I don\u2019t think it was a huge surprise, I think it was pretty well expected at this point after just a miserable season,\u201d Mike Salk<\/a> said Monday morning on Seattle Sports\u2019 Brock and Salk. \u201cI think Pete didn\u2019t need to win this year, but he couldn\u2019t have been a joke, and I think by the end of the year \u2013 not even by the end of the year, throughout the year \u2013 the Raiders were a joke.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 You can\u2019t help but think and juxtapose where the Raiders and Pete are at today versus where the Seahawks are at, winning the NFC, winning the NFC West and sitting around waiting on a first round bye. They made the right call.\u201d<\/p>\n In their second year with Mike Macdonald as head coach, the Seahawks finished 14-3, which is the first 14-win season in team history. Macdonald was hired by longtime Seahawks general manager John Schneider, who was retained in 2024 while Carroll was let go. Schneider also made tough decisions last offseason on a number of key players, trading quarterback Geno Smith to the Raiders and wide receiver DK Metcalf to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and letting wide receiver Tyler Lockett go.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the hardest things to do in life is to say goodbye,\u201d former NFL quarterback and football broadcast analyst Brock Huard<\/a> said. \u201c\u2026 But they did move on from Pete. They did move on from DK. They did move on from Geno, Tyler Lockett. Those are not easy things to do. (Those are hard) calls to make. There\u2019s a lot of hurt feelings. \u2026 Those are not fun things to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Salk credited not just John Schneider but Jody Allen, who has been the Seahawks chair since 2018, for making the right decision at tough times not just once but twice.<\/p>\n \u201cI think John deserves a ton of credit for how they did it with Geno and for DK. Obviously, that was right there at the top of the list for me. But I do think there\u2019s another person that deserves a lot of credit here and she doesn\u2019t often get it, and that\u2019s Jody Allen,\u201d Salk said. \u201c\u2026 I think she has made a couple of brilliant decisions. When the choice was there between Pete and (former Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson), she chose Pete, and it was 100% the right decision at that time. And a couple years later, when it became pretty clear she was going to have to make some sort of a choice with Pete\u2026 she did it right. She chose John and allowed Pete to move on.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth of those calls, two of the most important decisions she\u2019s had to make in her tenure now as the owner of the Seahawks, she\u2019s gotten both 100% right.\u201d<\/p>\n That jumped out on the same day that one of Seattle\u2019s NFC West rivals, the Arizona Cardinals, fired head coach Jonathan Gannon<\/a> after a 3-14 season. Gannon\u2019s three-year tenure ended with a 15-36 overall record, making him the third consecutive Cardinals coach to finish with a losing record for the team since Arizona replaced Bruce Arians in 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of that,\u201d Huard said of the Seahawks\u2019 decision making, \u201cyou have alignment and continuity that none of these other organizations have, and they\u2019re striving for.\u201d<\/p>\n Catch Brock and Salk live from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports. Hear the full conversation about Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks in the podcast from Monday\u2019s show below.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n More on the Seattle Seahawks<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0Mike Macdonald: Charles Cross extension \u2018big time\u2019 move for Seahawks<\/a>
\u2022\u00a0Seahawks\u2019 home, road opponents set for 2026 season<\/a>
\u2022\u00a0The numbers behind Seahawks\u2019 defensive masterpiece vs. 49ers<\/a>
\u2022\u00a0Seahawks GM shares positive updates on Bryant, Cross for playoffs<\/a>
\u2022\u00a0Drake Thomas an unlikely hero in Seattle Seahawks\u2019 landmark win <\/a><\/p>\n
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