Less than 24 hours after leading the Seattle Seahawks to their seventh playoff appearance of his tenure, coach Pete Carroll reached agreement on a multi-year contract extension on Monday.
Carroll, who also serves as the teams Executive Vice President of Football Operations, presided over the Seahawks securing their latest playoff berth in Sunday night’s 38-31 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I am excited to announce that we have extended Head Coach Pete Carroll through the 2021 season,” Seahawks chairwoman Jody Allen said in a statement released by the team.
The Seahawks were coming off two straight double-digit loss seasons when Carroll was hired as their eighth head coach on Jan. 11, 2010.
Carroll has become the most successful coach in team history. After going 7-9 in each of his first two seasons, Carroll led the Seahawks to six straight postseason appearances, including the team’s first Super Bowl Title in 2014 against Denver.
Overall, he is 97-59-1 and if the Seahawks beat the Cardinals next week it will be their sixth season with at least 10 wins under Carroll. Before Carroll arrived, Seattle finished with double-digit wins five times in its first 34 seasons.
“So grateful to Jody and the organization,” Carroll said in a statement provided by the team. “I love this team and couldn’t be more proud to represent the 12s.”
Now that Carroll has his extension, he can focus on improving locking up the fifth seed and a visit to Dallas in the divisional round.
“We don’t care who we play or where we play, it doesn’t matter,” Carroll said. “We’re going to go play the way we’ve been playing and see if it holds up and count on that it will. For everybody to embrace that, they all know. The locker room knows. They know what we’re going, they know who we are, and they’re ready to go. It’s thrilling.”
Carroll’s ninth season was expected to one of transition after the Seahawks overhauled the roster with a series of moves that included releasing Richard Sherman.
After losing five of their first nine games, the Seahawks head into Week 17 with five wins in their last six games.
In their latest win, Seattle continued to display a productive ground game with Chris Carson getting his fifth 100-yard rushing game of the season while scoring on two physical touchdown runs while Russell Wilson matched Patrick Mahomes.