Pete Carroll hints at offseason overhaul, promising 'extremely aggressive approach'

RENTON, Wash. – Pete Carroll hinted at an offseason of major changes Tuesday, saying the team will take an “extremely aggressive approach” as it evaluates and corrects its first non-playoff season in six years.

Carroll gave his annual postmortem of the season at the VMAC, telling reporters ‘We've competed at every turn. … We'll do that in terms of personnel, in terms of the technical side of our game, the administrative part of our game, everything from how we rehab to how we play call" as they work to get back to Super Bowl form.

“(GM John Schneider) and I have a big job,” Carroll said. “As we always say to you at this time of year, there’s a lot of huge decisions to be made and we’re faced with big challenges, always. There’s a lot of people involved, there’s families involved, there’s a lot of heartfelt friends and loved ones that we’re dealing with.

“We take all of that into account to compete our butt off to figure out how to get better and to get back on track the way we want to be.”

Carroll said one of the first orders of business will be getting the run game back on track. Quarterback  Russell Wilson was the Seahawks’ leading rusher this season, and it wasn’t even close. He had 95 carries for 586  yards, trailed distantly by Mike Davis (68 carries, 240 yards), Chris Carson (29 carries, 208 yards) and Eddie Lacy (69 carries, 179 yards).

“We have a real formula for how we win, and we’ve been unable the last two years to incorporate a major aspect of that, and that’s running the football the way we want to,” Carroll said. “I think you’ll see tremendous examples around the league of teams that have turned it around, and they’ve turned it around using a formula that should sound familiar to you: Teams running the football, teams playing good defense, and doing the kicking game thing. That’s the formula that has proven historically the best in this game.

“We’ve been committed to that from the start, but unfortunately we have not been able to recapture in the way that we have in years past.”

Carroll said his biggest regret of the season was the historic penalty yards the Seahawks gave up this season. Seattle gave up 83.9 yards per game – worst in the NFL by nearly 12 yards, and second worst in the history of the league.

“We’ve been in this situation before, and have been able to overcome our issues and our style of play, it didn’t affect us dramatically,” Carroll said. “But this year, it was more of a factor. Our margin wasn’t such that we could endure it as well. That’s a major aspect of us to change that I’m clear on how I’m gonna go about that. It’s going to start way back on the first day, April 16, and we’ll make a change there because it has to happen.”