The Hiring of Carl Smith
The Seahawks' new quarterbacks coach, Carl Smith, has some history with Carroll. Smith was the QB coach under Carroll in New England from 1997 - 1999 and again at USC in 2004. Here's a quick rundown of his more recent coaching jobs:
| 1986 - 96 | New Orleans Saints | QB coach & Offensive Coordinator |
| 1997 - 99 | New England Patriots | QB and TE coach |
| 2001 - 03 | Cleveland Browns | QB coach |
| 2004 | USC | QB coach |
| 2005 - 07 | Jacksonville Jaguars | Offensive Coordinator |
| 2009 | Cleveland Browns | QB Coach |
In order to get some idea about what effect Smith's coaching had on his quarterbacks, I looked at the three QBs he worked with who started the most NFL games: Bobby Hebert and Jim Everett in New Orleans, and Drew Bledsoe in New England.
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| Bobby Hebert w/ Smith as QB coach: New Oleans, 1987 - 92 w/o Smith as QB Coach: Atlanta Falcons, 1993 - 96 |
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| Year | Starts | Comp. | Att. | Comp. % | Total Yds | Yds/Comp. | TDs | Int. | TDs/Att. | Int./Att. |
| 1987 | 12 (of 12) | 164 | 294 | 55.78 | 2119 | 12.92 | 15 | 9 | 0.051 | 0.031 |
| 1988 | 16 (of 16) | 280 | 478 | 58.58 | 3156 | 11.27 | 20 | 15 | 0.042 | 0.031 |
| 1989 | 13 (of 14) | 222 | 353 | 62.89 | 2686 | 12.10 | 15 | 15 | 0.042 | 0.042 |
| 1991 | 9 (of 9) | 149 | 248 | 60.08 | 1676 | 11.25 | 9 | 8 | 0.036 | 0.032 |
| 1992 | 16 (of 16) | 249 | 422 | 59.00 | 3287 | 13.20 | 19 | 16 | 0.045 | 0.038 |
| Average w/ Smith: |
13.2 | 212.8 | 359 | 59.27 | 2584.8 | 12.15 | 15.6 | 12.6 | 0.043 | 0.035 |
| 1993 | 12 (of 14) | 263 | 430 | 61.16 | 2978 | 11.32 | 24 | 17 | 0.056 | 0.04? |
| 1996 | 13 (of 14) | 294 | 488 | 60.25 | 3152 | 10.72 | 22 | 25 | 0.045 | 0.051 |
| Avg. After Smith: |
12.5 | 278.5 | 459 | 60.70 | 3065 | 11.16 | 23 | 21 | 0.050 | 0.046 |
(Note: The starts stat lists how many games the player started out of all the games he played in a given year. Also, years in which the player did not have many starts have been omitted. In 1990, Hebert held out in a contract dispute, and in 1994 and 1995 he did not start a game.)
Hebert's completion percentage under Smith was lower than it was in his later seasons by a little over 2%, and he threw 47.4% fewer touchdown passes. However, he also threw 66.7% more interceptions and slightly under a yard less per completion in his post-Smith career.
| Jim Everett w/o Smith as QB coach: St. Louis Rams, 1986 - 93; San Diego Chargers, 1997 w/ Smith as QB coach: New Orleans Saints, 1994 - 96 |
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| Year | Starts | Comp. | Att. | Comp. % | Total Yds | Yds/Comp. | TDs | Int. | TDs/Att. | Int./Att. |
| 1987 | 11 (of 11) | 162 | 302 | 53.64 | 2064 | 12.74 | 10 | 13 | 0.033 | 0.043 |
| 1988 | 16 (of 16) | 308 | 517 | 59.57 | 3964 | 12.87 | 31 | 18 | 0.066 | 0.035 |
| 1989 | 16 (of 16) | 304 | 518 | 58.69 | 4310 | 14.18 | 29 | 17 | 0.056 | 0.033 |
| 1990 | 16 (of 16) | 307 | 554 | 55.42 | 3989 | 12.99 | 23 | 17 | 0.042 | 0.031 |
| 1991 | 16 (of 16) | 277 | 490 | 56.53 | 3438 | 12.41 | 11 | 20 | 0.022 | 0.041 |
| 1992 | 16 (of 16) | 281 | 475 | 59.16 | 3323 | 11.83 | 22 | 18 | 0.046 | 0.038 |
| 1993 | 9 (of 10) | 135 | 274 | 49.27 | 1652 | 12.24 | 8 | 12 | 0.029 | 0.044 |
| Avg. Pre- Smith: |
14.3 | 253.4 | 447.1 | 56.04 | 3248.6 | 12.82 | 19.1 | 16.4 | 0.043 | 0.037 |
| 1994 | 16 (of 16) | 346 | 540 | 64.07 | 3855 | 11.14 | 22 | 18 | 0.041 | 0.033 |
| 1995 | 16 (of 16) | 345 | 567 | 60.85 | 3970 | 11.51 | 16 | 14 | 0.046 | 0.025 |
| 1996 | 15 (of 15) | 267 | 464 | 57.54 | 2797 | 10.48 | 12 | 16 | 0.026 | 0.034 |
| Average w/ Smith: |
15.7 | 319.3 | 523.7 | 60.82 | 3540.7 | 11.09 | 20 | 16 | 0.038 | 0.031 |
(Note: Everett started just 5 games in 1986 and 1 in 1997.)
In Everett's case, being coached by Smith didn't make much of a difference. His completion percentage went up by 4.78% and threw 2.4% fewer interceptions, but he also threw 4.7% fewer TDs and 1.73 fewer yards per completion.
| Drew Bledsoe w/o Smith as QB coach: New England Patriots, 1993 - 96, 2000 - 01; Buffalo Bills, 2002 - 04; Dallas Cowboys, 2005 - 06 w/ Smith as QB coach: New England Patriots, 1997 - 99 |
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| Year | Starts | Comp. | Att. | Comp. % | Total Yds | Yds/Comp. | TDs | Int. | TDs/Att. | Int/Att. |
| 1993 | 12 (of 13) | 214 | 429 | 49.88 | 2494 | 11.65 | 15 | 15 | 0.035 | 0.035 |
| 1994 | 16 (of 16) | 400 | 691 | 57.89 | 4555 | 11.39 | 25 | 27 | 0.036 | 0.039 |
| 1995 | 15 (of 15) | 323 | 636 | 50.79 | 3507 | 10.86 | 13 | 16 | 0.020 | 0.025 |
| 1996 | 16 (of 16) | 373 | 623 | 59.87 | 4086 | 10.95 | 27 | 15 | 0.043 | 0.024 |
| Avg. Pre- Smith |
14.75 | 327.5 | 594.8 | 55.07 | 3660.5 | 11.18 | 20 | 18.25 | 0.034 | 0.031 |
| 1997 | 16 (of 16) | 314 | 522 | 60.15 | 3706 | 11.8 | 28 | 15 | 0.054 | 0.029 |
| 1998 | 14 (of 14) | 262 | 481 | 54.47 | 3633 | 13.87 | 20 | 14 | 0.042 | 0.029 |
| 1999 | 16 (of 16) | 305 | 539 | 56.59 | 3985 | 13.07 | 19 | 21 | 0.035 | 0.039 |
| Average w/ Smith |
15.3 | 293.7 | 514 | 57.07 | 3774.7 | 12.85 | 22.3 | 16.7 | 0.043 | 0.032 |
| 2000 | 16 (of 16) | 312 | 531 | 58.76 | 3291 | 10.55 | 17 | 13 | 0.032 | 0.024 |
| 2002 | 16 (of 16) | 375 | 610 | 61.48 | 4359 | 11.62 | 24 | 15 | 0.039 | 0.025 |
| 2003 | 16 (of 16) | 274 | 471 | 58.17 | 2860 | 10.44 | 11 | 12 | 0.023 | 0.025 |
| 2004 | 16 (of 16) | 256 | 450 | 56.89 | 2932 | 11.45 | 20 | 16 | 0.044 | 0.036 |
| 2005 | 16 (of 16) | 300 | 499 | 60.12 | 3639 | 12.13 | 23 | 17 | 0.046 | 0.034 |
| Avg. After Smith |
16 | 303.4 | 512.2 | 59.23 | 3416.2 | 11.26 | 19 | 14.6 | 0.037 | 0.029 |
(Note: Smith started just 2 games in 2001 and 6 in 2006.)
Bledsoe is the first real big name QB Smith coached in his career, and because those years came in the middle of Bledsoe's career we can compare his production under Smith to his production both before and after being coached by Smith, giving us a more complete picture.
The only real effect Smith's coaching seemed to have is an increase in yards per completion (1.67 more than in his pre-Smith years and 1.59 more than in his post-Smith years) and TDs (11.5% increase over his pre-Smith years and 17.4% higher than his post-Smith years). Bledsoe's average completion percentage was 2% higher under Smith than it was in previous seasons, but in subsequent years his average completion percentage raised another 2.16% which suggests that Bledsoe's production in that category was getting better on average every season with or without Smith's coaching. The same pattern emerges in his interception stats: his interceptions decreased by 8.5% under Smith, but then they decreased another 12.6% in the seasons that followed.
Also of note are some of the other QBs with whom Carl Smith worked: Tim Coach (Browns), Byron Leftwich (Jaguars), and Brady Quinn (Browns). None produced enough data under Smith to add them to the analysis, but amusingly enough all of them are first round busts, and the QB he coached at USC, Matt Leinart, also went on to become a first round bust for the Cardinals.
On the whole, this is not a very impressive resume, but despite that Carroll just hired him for the third time. The move reeks of nepotism, and frankly I am not comfortable with Carl Smith coaching any QB of the future the Seahawks might acquire.
