Ex-Seahawks coach Pete Carroll’s wish list leaked, and his number one item is the head coaching job in the Windy City.
The 73-year-old Super Bowl champion is ready to return to the sideline, ESPN reports, and he’s targeting the vacant Bears job.
The Seahawks moved on from their longtime head coach after last season, shifting him to an advisory role while hiring Mike Macdonald as his replacement.
Ownership’s decision was taken in stride, if not slightly begrudgingly, and Carroll’s been itching to get back into the game ever since.
“I’m not worn out. I’m not tired. I’m not any of that stuff,” Carroll had said during the offseason.
In a subsequent media appearance on a Seattle-based radio show, he added, “I’ve got plenty of energy for it and thought and willingness, but I can’t imagine there’s a place, the right one.”
The right one, now that Matt Eberflus is out in Chicago, is ripe for the taking.
The Bears finally showed their third-year head coach the door after a loss in November that was, even by Bears standards, woefully incomprehensible.
In prime Bears fashion though, Eberflus was excused only after answering for his abysmal clock management.
In Chicago, Carroll would team up with a fellow former Trojan, quarterback Caleb Williams.
The head coach led USC to national championships in 2003 and ’04 before beginning his 14-year run with the Seahawks.
Williams, for his part, was still in diapers while Carroll and the Trojans were collecting all that brass.
Nearly two decades later, he would arrive in Southern California as a sophomore and promptly earn both All-American and Heisman honors.
During his junior campaign, Williams worked with former Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury who was, at the time, in an offensive advisory role with the Trojans.
Kingsbury, now an offensive coordinator with the Washington Commanders, is reportedly interested in the Bears head coaching vacancy as well.
In addition to the Bears, the Jets and Saints are also in the market for a new head coach. And while Carroll may be interested in these other opportunities as well, as ESPN reports, he has not yet spoken with any teams.
Plus, other jobs will likely open up once the season ends.
Considering the unequivocal success he had at USC and then in Seattle — leading the Seahawks to 10 playoff appearances, two conference championships and the franchise’s lone Super Bowl win — Carroll is likely to be on some of these woebegone NFL teams’ wish lists, too.
