After conducting interviews with their first two candidates on Wednesday, the Chicago Bears will meet with another pair of hopefuls. The first batch included one former head coach (Mike Vrabel) and one rising coordinator (Drew Petzing). Now, it is on to Pete Carroll.
Carroll spent the 2024 season out of football, but he was the head coach for the Seattle Seahawks for 14 seasons before that.
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Carroll did not want to be out of coaching last season, and he did not even want to leave Seattle. ESPN’s Brady Henderson made note of the optics in January after the Super Bowl champion head coach. Carroll also appeared on the Pat McAfee Show in January to explain his side of how the situation played out with the team he enjoyed the longest tenure with.
Carroll began his coaching career in 1973, and he landed his first NFL job in 1984.
He has spent time with six different NFL clubs – and one college program – since then. In addition to the Seahawks (137-89-1), he was a head coach for the New York Jets (6-10) and then the New England Patriots (27-21).
Carroll spent the first 11 years of his coaching career in the college ranks, and he returned there following his final season in England in 1999 and remained there until joining Seattle in 2010.
Carroll led the Seahawks to back-to-back Super Bowls, winning in 2013 and losing in 2014.
Carroll’s Seattle tenure would be the second-most wins for a coach’s time with the Bears in franchise history. However, there are significant question marks that may prove to be red flags about potentially hiring Carroll.
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Carroll will turn 74 years old less than one week into the 2025 NFL season. He was the oldest head coach when he stepped away in 2023, and he would return to retake the crown from Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid if hired this cycle.
Reid is 66; eight years younger than Carroll, and there have been questions about the Chiefs’ head coach’s future for years.
Carroll has always been known for his energetic personality.
An all-time @PeteCarroll locker room speech, for sure.#GoHawks x @QNTMFiber pic.twitter.com/dm9z92joxo
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) December 19, 2023
But, just as an authoritative personality can lead to malcontents in the locker room, too loose a command can see things spiral out of control quickly. The Bears’ 2024 season is a glaring example of the latter.
The Bears also fired Carroll’s former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, though the two were not always on the same page.
Does that help or hurt Carroll, and should it even matter?
That is the inherent risk decision-makers take by going back to the same talent well more than once, especially after a disaster like having to fire a coordinator in-season for the first time in franchise history.
Carroll has other interviews lined up, so the Bears are not exactly stepping out on a limb speaking with him.
Still, it is fair to wonder just how well he can right a ship, and this ship in particular.
The Bears had several players on their 2024 roster who could provide valuable feedback on Carroll from their time with the Seahawks, including tight end Gerald Everett and special teams maven Travis Homer. That Carroll is still a candidate could speak volumes in that context.