Pete Carroll not a finalist for NFL coach of the year. Top Seahawks players howl online

Want to see Seahawks players quickly defend and profess their love for their coach?

Mention to them the finalists for the NFL’s coach of the year award.

On Wednesday morning, the league announced the five finalists for the NFL’s coaching award it will hand out at the Super Bowl next month.

Pete Carroll is not one of the five finalists.

Philadelphia’s Nick Sirianni, San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan, the New York Giants’ Brian Daboll, Buffalo’s Sean McDermott and Jacksonville’s Doug Pedersen are. The league will announce the winner during its annual awards show the night before the Super Bowl, which is Feb. 12 in Glendale, Arizona.

To Seattle’s players, the league and its panel of voters might as well have spat on the 12 flag.

To them, it’s as if the NFL thinks Carroll took the 2022 season off. Just did nothing. That anyone — heck, a traffic cone — could have:

• traded Russell Wilson

• cut Bobby Wagner

• rescued Geno Smith from seven years as a backup for four teams and installed him to become a Pro Bowl quarterback replacing Wilson

• started five rookies, including only the third pair of rookie offensive tackles to start in week one in 52 years

• changed the defensive system the coach had been running for 50 years

• got the entire locker room to buy into all of that
  
  

• and still made the playoffs, for the 10th time in 13 years

That’s what had Seahawks players sounding off on social media into Wednesday night. It was another example of how his players love their personal, relationships-centric coach.

Smith answered the NFL’s online question “Which HC will be named the 2022 AP Coach of the Year?” by posting his coach’s full name on his Twitter account: “Peter Clay Carroll.”

Wide receiver and co-captain Tyler Lockett, whom Smith made a 1,000-yard receiver for the fourth consecutive season to tie Hall of Famer’s Steve Largent’s Seahawks record, supported on his Twitter account Smith’s protest.

Lockett’s response was a suggestion on how to settle the coach-of-the-year award: “SHOOTOFF”

That’s a reference to the 71-year-old Carroll challenging his players to jump-shooting contests on the regulation-height basketball hoops that are in multiple locations of the Seahawks’ training facility in Renton: in the main auditorium meeting room, on the sideline of the indoor practice field, on the outside of the building off the outdoor practice fields.

Tight end Jacob Hollister thought a shoot-off was a great idea.

Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs also responded directly on social media to the NFL’s announcement of its five coaching finalists. Diggs reminded all that people thought he was crazy for saying a reason he re-signed with Seattle so quickly after the team sent away Wilson and Wagner on the same Tuesday last March was Carroll assuring him the 2022 Seahawks would not be a rebuild.

It wasn’t. This past season’s team won more games than Wilson’s 2021 Seahawks, and made the playoffs after a year out of them.

“Man I don’t understand how Pete isn’t a finalist! not a top 5 coaching job with a team everybody expected to be sorry? Y’all killed me last year when I said “Pete told me we’re not rebuilding we’re trying to win now!” once i resigned!” Diggs posted on Twitter.

Teammates Will Dissly and Tariq Woolen retweeted Diggs’ post in support.

Carroll has not won the NFL’s coach of the year award. Not in any of the 10 seasons he’s coached Seattle into the postseason. Not in either of the consecutive years he led the Seahawks into the Super Bowl, at the end of the 2013 and ‘14 seasons. Not for the year Seattle won it all, its only NFL title in Super Bowl 48, February 2014.

Smith, Walker, Woolen finalists

Voting for the Associated Press’ NFL coach of the year, the one the league recognizes as official, is done as is the AP’s voting for league most valuable player, comeback players of the year, offensive and defensive players of the year and offensive and defensive rookies of the year. That is, by a national panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the league. Voted ended before the playoffs began.

This was the first year for the AP’s new voting system. Voters chose a top 5 for MVP and top 3 for all other awards. For MVP, first-place were worth 10 points. Second through fifth-place votes were worth 5, 3, 2 and 1 points.

For all the other awards, first-place votes equaled 5 points, second were 3 and third were 1 point.

Smith, 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey and New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley are the finalists for NFL comeback player of the year. Smith set four Seahawks single-season records for passing. He broke Wilson’s team marks for completions, attempts and completion rate. Smith’s 69.8% completion rate led the NFL this past season.

Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker joined San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy and New York Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson as finalists for offensive rookie of the year. Walker joined Curt Warner in 1983 as the only Seattle rookies to rush for 1,000 yards. Walker did it after becoming the Seahawks’ lead running back in week five, following Rashaad Penny’s season-ending injury. Walker also missed two games because of injury, and played through a sprained ankle during December.

Woolen, the Seahawks’ Pro Bowl cornerback in his debut season, is a finalist for NFL defensive rookie of the year. The other finalists are Jets cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner and Detroit defensive end Aidan Hutchinson. Woolen is a fifth-round draft choice and former college wide receiver Carroll installed as a starter from the first preseason game in mid-August. Woolen shared the league lead with six interceptions in the regular season.