Carroll to 'Hawks right move?

Time to get back on the posting trail after the holiday hiatus.

I'll start off by talking about the big Washington news of the day -- Pete Carroll to Seattle.

Let's lead off with the positives. The guy can coach, as evidenced by his stellar record at USC (96-19 in nine seasons), and his plus-.500 record as the head man in the NFL (33-31 in four seasons).


However, let's look at what we know about Carroll:

A player's coach. Carroll, while maintaining his stranglehold over his players as the enthusiastic coach, is also seen as one of the guys. His exuberant delivery . Carroll also appears to be a pretty benevolent guy -- helping with youth football, inviting handicapped children to practice (read: ESPN's 'Outside the Lines' story) and even adding an extra special teams coach to his staff. In all seriousness, players gravitate towards this guy because of his charisma -- something certain to lure impressionable high school stud athletes to campus as a college recruiter.

But pro ball is a different story -- players get drafted, free agents ink contracts with greenbacks and playing time (not coaching philosophy) on their minds, and the well-oiled machine of the NFL grinds on. If it were about being a player's coach, Jim Mora would still be toting a Seattle clipboard. Because he couldn't deliver consistent, week-to-week results, he was jettisoned out of town.

How will personnel issues be decided? Since Carroll was able to plug-and-play with the athletes that rolled in at USC, he will be in a different scenario in the NFL, especially in terms of handing roster moves. It has yet to emerge whether or not Carroll will handle contractual negotiations, have final say on draft choices and be given authority to go after desired free agents. If so, this role will be vastly different than his ability to woo tweens to committ to the sunny So-Cal life. Instead, Carroll will have to flash Paul Allen's money and hope players buy into his 4-3 defense and seemingly big play offensive mindset -- be it Jeremy Bates or Norm Chow that runs the offensive show in Seattle. It has been reported Will Lewis could take on the General Manager role in Seattle should Carroll only have coaching responsibilities.