HC Pete Carroll on Seahawks expectations: 'I don't care what anybody says'

Nobody would blame you if you looked at the Seattle Seahawks' 2022 roster, the level of competition around them in the NFC West and penciled them in for last place in the division this season.

They are already coming off of a 7-10 season a year ago, their worst performance under head coach Pete Carroll, and traded away their franchise quarterback (Russell Wilson) this offseason to kickstart what looks to be a rebuild. 

That would seem to put them behind the eight ball in a division with the reigning Super Bowl champs (Los Angeles Rams) and potential playoff teams in Arizona and San Francisco. But Carroll cares not for your thoughts on the subject or your lowered expectations for his team this season.

“I don’t care what anybody says,” said Carroll, via ESPN's Brady Henderson. 

“People have been saying stuff about teams for years. They don’t know. They’re just guessing at this point, and then we go and prove it and we see where we are … Win a big game in the opener or struggle and not win a big game in the opener, you’ve got to come back and get going again and back on track regardless.”

Carroll also pointed out how his teams, going all the way back to his USC days, have been averaging 10 wins per year over the past "20-something years" and that he sees no reason why he should alter his expectations for this season. 

On one hand, what else is Carroll supposed to say? He is not the type of coach that is going to concede anything going into a season, and he is absolutely right that his teams have been successful for two decades now. Including his entire tenure with the Seahawks, where he has only had three losing seasons in 12 years, won at least 10 games eight different times, and played in two Super Bowls, winning one of them.

On the other hand, all of that came with a franchise quarterback in Wilson keeping the ship going in the right direction. It is a long way from Wilson to Drew Lock and Geno Smith, especially in that gauntlet of a division that always includes four games against the equally strong AFC West.