In our business, we're all guilty of it. A team makes a few personnel moves and we immediately hit the search button.
A team signs a player and we search his numbers from last season.
A team signs a defensive coordinator and we see how badly his defense got lit up last season. Why did he get fired?
Sign a new offensive coordinator? Well, how many points did his offense score last season? What about total yards?
It's just a natural reaction to check a little history. What do all those numbers mean? Usually, nothing, because it has as much to do with personnel and talent than it does with a good coach.
Sometimes, new hires have less to do with stats and more to do with philosophy.
Pete Carroll wants coaches who share his philosophy. Coaches who will do things his way. I remember listening to Pete during one of his Super Bowl press conferences. He was asked his thoughts on why he struggled during his first go-round as an NFL head coach with the Jets and Patriots. To put it simply, he said he stopped being true to himself. He got away from doing things his way. When he took the job at USC, he reversed course and started doing things his way. Then, any failure fell squarely on his shoulders.
We saw the results. He blocked out the noise and the unsolicited advice and reeled off an impressive nine-year run with the Trojans.
Maybe somewhere over the last couple of seasons, the man who led the Seahawks to their first-ever Super Bowl championship lost a little control of the way he does things.
On offense, it's no secret. Pete wants to get back to running the football. New offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and new offensive line coach Mike Solari share that philosophy. Otherwise, they wouldn't be the newest employees on the payroll.
On the other side of the ball, defense is Pete's specialty -- always has been. Now that Ken Norton, Jr. has nearly three years experience as a defensive coordinator, Pete must think he's ready to take over that role in Seattle.
Or maybe it's closer to the Bucky Brooks way of thinking. The former NFL player and one-time scout for the Seahawks sent out a tweet upon hearing of Norton's hiring, saying:
"If this is true, it's all about Pete Carroll wanting a joystick as a DC. This is about the head coach wanting someone who won't challenge his ideas or suggestions."
So what.
A head coach running the defense is nothing new.
Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer has called the defensive plays in Minnesota since taking over in 2014. The Vikings had the NFL's number one defense this season.
Bill Belichick runs the show in New England, and you can bet if defensive coordinator Matt Patricia didn't follow Bill's philosophy, he'd be on the first bus out of Foxboro.
The head coach should hold the ultimate trump card on both sides of the ball. Now that Pete has shuffled the deck, let's take our finger off the search button and at least give the man a chance to play his hand.
