Flashbacks to Carroll's first season in Seattle

Turns out this season was more like Pete Carroll's first year in town than anything else, which means these Seahawks still have a lot of work to do.

When this season began, I thought the Seahawks would be following the blueprint they used in 2011 when they signed Tarvaris Jackson to serve as a bridge as they looked for a quarterback successor to Matt Hasselbeck.

When Seattle was 6-3 under Geno Smith, I wondered if this might be more like 2012 when the Seahawks found they had their next quarterback and captured a confidence that took them within a minute of playing for the conference championship.

Now that the season is over, I actually think that this season was more like Carroll’s first season in Seattle when the Seahawks had a surprising playoff appearance and some positive signs for the future, but were too light in the cakes on defense to be throwing ‘bows with the big dogs in the playoffs.