Pete Carroll plans to return to Seahawks for 15th season

Pete Carroll plans to return to Seahawks for 15th season،

Brady Henderson, ESPNJanuary 8, 2024, 10:11 p.m.
Close

SEATTLE — With renewed rumors that he may retire, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll reiterated Monday that he intends to return in 2024 for what will be his 15th season in Seattle.

“I plan on coaching this team,” Carroll said on his Seattle Sports radio show at 7:10 a.m., a day after the Seahawks' season ended with a victory over the Arizona Cardinals , but without a place in the playoffs. “I told you I love these guys and this is what I'd like to do and see how far I can go. I'm not burned out. I'm not tired. I'm not one of those things .I need to do a better job and I need to help my coaches more and we need to do a better job coaching, and there's a lot of things to improve on.”

At 72, Carroll is the oldest head coach in the NFL in several years, leading to annual speculation about when he might call it a career. The extension he signed in 2020 runs through the 2025 season.

The Seahawks beat Arizona to finish 9-8, but also needed a Green Bay Packers loss to the Chicago Bears on Sunday to earn the NFC's seventh seed. It's the fourth time in 14 seasons under Carroll — and the second time in the last three years — that Seattle has missed the playoffs.

When asked after the game if this season made him want to come back in 2024, Carroll replied: “Yeah… sure, I'd love to do that.”

Asked if he expected to return, Carroll said: “Yes. I do. At this point, I do, yes.”

The Seahawks were 30th in defense and 21st in offense in 2023. On his radio show, Carroll hinted that changes could be coming.

“That time of year is coming and it’s the time when real focused planning begins,” he said. “There's planning going on. There's discussions and conversations about how you're going to continue, what the future will be like and what's coming. [General manager John Schneider] and I still talk about this stuff forever. But that's when the real business starts to happen, and there are things to do and decisions to make and choices and all sorts of things. That’s what this time of year is, and we’ll see how we get through it.”