Lots have changed since Pete Carroll was working for the Seattle Seahawks. He used to be the head coach and vice president of football operations, but just as important, he had the final say over all roster moves for the team.
If Carroll wanted to draft a player and general manager John Schneider wasn't sure, Carroll's word was final. If there was a potential trade that Carroll thought would help the Seahawks, Schneider did his best to get it done.
In the majority of cases with NFL teams, such as the current state of the Seahawks, head coaches cannot build the roster in their image, but yield to the general manager. Fans sometimes misinterpret a deal a team does as the coach's doing. This is most of the time not the reality. The GM is making the decisions.
Pete Carroll's biggest mistake has crippled the Seahawks for years
With Carroll, it was different. He is no longer the coach for Seattle, but holds the same role, minus the roster decisions, with the Las Vegas Raiders. But many of his decisions with the Seahawks are long-lasting. One, in particular, has been ranked as the worst trade the Seahawks have made over the last decade by Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report.
Knox names the worst trade of the last 10 years, and to be fair, the Seahawks' choice might be the easiest. In 2020, when Seattle acquired safety Jamal Adams from the New York Jets, the move appeared to be a safe one that would re-inspire the defense and help the unit become more aggressive.
The problem became that Seattle gave up far too much for a player who would become oft-injured. The risk was great even from the onset, though. That is because Seattle gave New York two first-round draft picks (one in 2021 and one in 2022) as well as a third-round pick in 2021. Seahawks safety Bradley McDougald was also part of the trade.
In his final two seasons in Seattle, Adams appeared in just 10 of a possible 34 games. He was released by the team in the 2024 offseason. He is currently a free agent.
A team giving up one first-round choice is going to affect the future, but two, and in back-to-back years, means the player being traded for has to be special for many years to overcome the losses of what the team could have added in the draft.
Adams was good in 2020 with 9.5 sacks (an NFL record for a defensive back), and he was solid in run support. What he always had a weakness in was pass coverage. He was inconsistent in that aspect, and often terrible. If Seattle had a plan to use three safeties, adding Adams would have worked better, even with his injury history, but that was never Carroll's plan.
Seattle was left with only three draft picks in 2021 after giving the Jets two of them. None of the three places chosen (D'Wayne Eskridge, Tre Brown, and Stone Forsythe) are still with the team. Basically losing an entire year of a draft is crippling to a team.
The blame for that, and part of his downfall with the Seahawks, goes to Pete Carroll, who had final say over the roster moves at the time. Many things Seattle has done over the last few years are due to Carroll's horrible mistake in 2021.
