the playoffs as a wild card team. They were close to advancing to the divisional round for the seventh time in nine years http://www.theseahawksfanshop.com/Cody-Barton-Jersey , but didn’t. Head Coach Pete..." />Skip to main contentclockmenumore-arrownoyesField Gulls homepageHorizontal - WhiteField Gullsa Seattle Seahawks communityFollow Field Gulls online:Follow Field Gulls on TwitterFollow Field Gulls on FacebookLog in or sign upLog InSign UpSite searchSearchSearchField Gulls main menuFanpostsFanshotsSectionsSeahawksOddsAboutMastheadCommunity GuidelinesStubHubMoreAll 321 blogs on Horizontal - WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections VideosCoffee and CigarettesGame AnalysisThe Numbers GameCigar ThoughtsWhat is success for the Seahawks in 2019?New,51commentsPDTThe 2018 Seattle Seahawks went 10-6 and made the playoffs as a wild card team. They were close to advancing to the divisional round for the seventh time in nine years, but didn’t. Head Coach Pete Carroll turns 68 in September. He’s the oldest head coach in the NFL, a year ahead of Bill Belichick and Bruce Arians. Belichick just set the record as the oldest head coach to win the Super Bowl, beating out the 65-year-old Tom Coughlin, who beat Belichick in 2011. Carroll will be older than Joe Gibbs was the last time he coached Washington. Dick Vermeil coached until he was 69, as did Coughlin. Marv Levy and George Halas went until they were 72.John Schneider is firmly entrenched as the general manager and any thoughts of him going to the Green Bay Packers have been evaporated. He’s here to stay for awhile barring a huge surprise.Russell Wilson turns 31 in November and there’s no reason to believe he has fewer than six good years left in the tank, maybe more. He’s a championship quarterback, one of the top five in the league probably. Any team with an elite franchise quarterback should be at least mentioned for the Super Bowl in my opinion.The defense was about league average in 2018. They traded Frank Clark and lost Earl Thomas to free agency, though Thomas barely played with Seattle last season. Doug Baldwin has also been released and is likely to retire or sit out 2019. Logic would say that the LA Rams are likely to regress and it is more probable that after going 13-3 in 2018, they’ll win between 10 and 12 games, not between 13 and 15. Carroll’s biggest test as a Hall of Fame defensive backs genius comes this summer in the form of finding out what he has with Shaquill Griffin, Tre Flowers D.K. Metcalf Jersey , Bradley McDougald, Marquis Blair, Tedric Thompson, Delano Hill, Ugo Amadi, Akeem King, and others. They also must shuffle through D.K. Metcalf, Gary Jennings, Amara Darboh, David Moore, Jaron Brown, Malik Turner and others as options beside Tyler Lockett. Even Lockett has a huge season ahead in determining if he’s actually a number one, or if he’ll have pressure taken off of him should Metcalf leap out as an immediate top-end option.Few people expected the Seahawks to be contenders in 2018. I had them around 9-10 wins http://www.theseahawksfanshop.com/Marquise-Blair-Jersey , which is where they landed. A Super Bowl would have been surprising, though I think Wilson, Carroll, and Bobby Wagner in the playoffs always have a shot to win three games. It’s not out of the realm of possibilities by any means.That won’t change in 2019, though the questions of the defensive changes and the receiving weapons will have many wondering if 9 or 10 wins is still possible. One advantage they may have this season could come in the form of the schedule but the strength of that schedule is not known. It’s not. Stop telling me it is. It isn’t.What I like though is starting at home against the Bengals. Going to Pittsburgh in Week 2 on Carroll’s 68th birthday also isn’t as daunting as it may have been a year ago now that Ben Roethlisberger is older too and Antonio Brown is in Oakland. They then get the Saints at home, travel to Arizona, and throw the first punch against the Rams back in Seattle. The Seahawks next go to Cleveland, have Thomas and the Ravens at home, go to Atlanta, host the Bucs, and travel to the bay for the 49ers. They alternate home and road every single week until the Week 11 bye.So the question is: what are fan expectations for 2019 now? What’s a success and what’s a failure? The NFL is handing out its awards for the 2018 season, and among the traditional categories, the AP Coach of the Year award went to Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy L.J. Collier Jersey , who led the Bears to a 12-4 record and an NFC North title.According to the full AP breakdown, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll was among six to receive a COTY vote, finishing fifth with a whopping two votes.As noted last year, the Seahawks have never won an AP award in the Russell Wilson era. Carroll in particular has never finished higher than third in Coach of the Year voting, and that came in 2012. This is the first time Carroll has received a COTY vote since the 2014 season, which doubles as Seattle’s last appearance in the Super Bowl.The 2018 Seahawks were widely predicted to miss the playoffs, with a handful of so-called experts believing Seattle would be picking in the top-ten. After a 4-5 start, Seattle went on a second-half surge and clinched a wild card spot at 10-6. Even in their losses, they were always competitive, and were one of only three teams all season — Kansas City Chiefs and Chicago Bears are the other two — to not trail by at least 17 points at any point in a game this year.Carroll was never going to win this award, but it’s good to see at least a couple of Associated Press members acknowledge what a great job Pete did this season.