When a 31-year-old Sean McVay arrived as the Los Angeles Rams head coach in 2017, he was joining an NFC West division that had recently been dominated by Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks. At that point in time, Carroll was entering his 8th season with the Seahawks, and in his first seven seasons, he had led Seattle to a 70-41-1 record, four division titles, and two Super Bowl appearances, including a resounding 43-8 win over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII. The Seahawks were not just the class of the NFC West… but of the NFC in general.
Now, seven years since McVay began coaching the Rams, it's LA who has had the most success of any team in the NFC West. Now I know any fans who are reading along in the Bay Area would be quick to want to make a case for Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers, but the numbers indicate it's been McVay's Rams that have had the most success… at least for now. Interestingly, McVay has won just as many games (70), made just as many Super Bowl appearances (2), and hoisted the Lombardi Trophy just as many times (1) as Carroll did in his first seven seasons in Seattle. So it should come as no surprise that McVay would have nothing but an immense amount of respect for one of his rival coaches.
“What a great coach. What an amazing leader of people,” McVay said following the announcement of Carroll being ousted as the Seahawks head coach, per Greg Beacham of The Associated Press. “The ultimate competitor. … Man, did his teams have an identity. Coach Carroll is a stud. If I'm sitting up here being able to do that as long as he did, holy s*** will that be impressive.”
Pete Carroll started as a graduate assistant at Pacific as a 22-year-old in 1973, and will likely wrap up his coaching career as 72-year-old in 2023. A fifty year career of coaching football is an absolutely remarkable accomplishment. McVay has already reportedly considered stepping away from coaching, as a lucrative and far less stressful career in TV would be waiting for him whenever that time comes. But Carroll was a football lifer who took just one single year off in that fifty year span.
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