Richard Sherman believes Pete Carroll still wants to coach, floats possible suitor

National Football League

Updated Jan. 11, 2024 7:41 p.m. ET

When the Seattle Seahawks announced that Pete Carroll wouldn’t be their head coach anymore, there was some thought that he would retire from coaching as he was reassigned within the organization.

However, that might not be the case. Richard Sherman, along with many other Seahawks players who played under Carroll, had dinner with their former coach on Wednesday night. As the group shared memories together, Sherman had one takeaway: Carroll still wants to be on the sideline.

“There were tears, there were hugs, there were laughs, there was a little bit of fussing,” Sherman said of Wednesday’s dinner on “Undisputed.” “There was talking about old memories, old times, old games, old jokes in the locker, old meetings — there’s so much history there, so there were so many conversations.

“But the one thing that was evident was that he wasn’t done. It doesn’t seem like he was done.”

When “Undisputed” host Skip Bayless pressed Sherman on Carroll’s coaching interest, the former star cornerback shared a possible destination for the coach.

“He wants to be a head coach in the National Football League,” Sherman said. “I’ve got a feeling if one of these teams called and interviewed him, he’d be a hard one to pass up because of the way he runs his program. Call me crazy, but if the Los Angeles Chargers call Pete Carroll, that would be a match made in heaven.

“He would get more butts in that stadium than they’ve ever had in the history of them being in LA, which has been a short amount of time. He’d change the culture of that program. He’d get these guys playing a way, especially defensively, he’d bring the coaches in, he’d bring the community together and that’s the spot I’d like to see him be at.”

Pete Carroll out as Seahawks head coach, will remain as a team advisor

Carroll certainly isn’t a stranger to Southern California. His career took off at USC, reforming the program back to its title-winning ways over his nine seasons at the helm between 2001-09. He won titles in 2003 and ‘04, leading the Trojans back to the title game amid their long winning streak in ’05.

Through the first few days of the offseason, the Chargers have requested to interview a handful of assistant coaches, such as Lions OC Ben Johnson and Cowboys DC Dan Quinn. They’ve also been heavily linked to Jim Harbaugh, with some speculating that the Michigan coach wants to wind up in Los Angeles coaching Justin Herbert and the Chargers.

They’ve yet to request the Seahawks’ permission to interview Carroll. The 72-year-old is still employed by Seattle, agreeing to remain in the organization as an advisor following Wednesday’s announcement. But Carroll said Wednesday that he doesn’t know what his new role entails, saying he won’t be assisting general manager John Schneider in finding his replacement.

Carroll also admitted that he pleaded to keep his job as head coach of the Seahawks before Wednesday’s news.

“I competed pretty hard to be the coach, just so you know,” Carroll told reporters. “I just wanted to make sure I stood up for all of our coaches and the players and the things that we had accomplished. Not just so we could be the coach still, but so we could continue to have a chance to be successful and keep the organization going. That’s what I was fighting for.

“That’s what I was representing in our discussions,” Carroll added. “And we got to a good part, good, clean spot where it made sense, and I went along with their intentions.”

Those comments are just part of the reason why Sherman wouldn’t be surprised if we see Carroll reemerge elsewhere sometime soon.

“I don’t think he’s done coaching,” Sherman said. “I expect to see him somewhere else in the near future, if he wants to.”