As the Seahawks prepare to face the Giants on Sunday, coach Pete Carroll is closing in on catching one of the all-time great NFL coaches in career wins.
Bud Grant has 168 total victories, including the postseason. Carroll has 167.
“That can’t be right, that doesn’t seem right,” Carroll said Wednesday when asked about it at his press conference. “That can’t be right, it doesn’t feel right, how can that possibly be right? It doesn’t seem right, he’s way out there to me and always will be. I’ll let you know, I don’t even have a statement to make about that.”
Grant hired Carroll in 1985 to coach Minnesota’s defensive backs. It was the year Grant returned to lead the Vikings after a one-year retirement -- and a one-year disaster under Les Steckel. Grant remained the coach for one season. Carroll stayed through 1989, working on the staff of Jerry Burns.
As regular-season wins go, Carroll has 156 and Grant has 158. Given that Carroll spent nine years at USC between stints with the Patriots and Seahawks, he’d potentially have a lot more than 167 total wins by now.
After passing Grant, Carroll will be in position to keep leapfrogging other big names on the all-time regular-season win list, from Mike Holmgren (161) to Paul Brown (166) to Mike Shanahan (170) to Tom Coughlin (170) to Bill Parcells (172) to Jeff Fisher (173).
The current top ten concludes with Chuck Knox, who has 186 career wins. Depending on how much longer the 71-year-old Carroll continues, he could end up in that group. If he coaches long enough to get to 200, he’ll tie Marty Schottenheimer for seventh place.
Also climbing the list with Carroll is Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, who has 157 regular-season wins. Others in striking distance for 200 include Mike McCarthy (143) and John Harbaugh (140).