Seahawks shake up coaching staff, fire Sherman Smith

The Seattle Seahawks have fired running back coach Sherman Smith. It is unclear as of right now why they would want to do so.

The Seattle Seahawks decided to shake up their offensive coaching staff a bit, but it isn’t a move that is likely to make fans happy. Tom Cable and Darrell Bevell are still in town. It was RB coach Sherman Smith that was shown the door.

Smith has always been a popular coach in Seattle. Part of that was his tenure as Seattle’s feature back (1976-1982). Another part was that he was respected coach that helped bring out the best in Marshawn Lynch.

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From the outside looking in, it is difficult to justify this move. If Smith is getting blamed for the lack of a running game in 2016, that would be a major mistake. The problem was clearly the Tom Cable’s linemen, not the backs.

On the other hand, perhaps this all comes back to Christine Michael. Smith was never able to reach Michael and get him to buy in. Seattle eventually traded him, and then brought Michael back when they got desperate.

After a great end to the 2015 season and a great training camp and preseason, Michael began to regress once the regular season started. He seemed to get worse each week, before the Seahawks finally gave up on him and cut him loose.

I’m not sure we should blame Smith for that. Dallas and Washington both gave up on Michael along the way as well. I’m just saying it is a possible explanation.

The reason I don’t like the “player development” justification would be the trio of backs that Seattle currently has on their roster.Thomas Rawls was like a lost puppy went training camp open in 2015, and he went on to lead the entire NFL in yards per carry that year.

CJ Prosise missed all of the offseason program and training camp, but Smith had him ready to be a breakout star when he finally got on the field. Alex Collins completely struggled at the start of 2016, and he was the team’s most efficient runner at the end of the season.

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Ultimately we’ll never know unless Smith decides to tell us. Asking Pete Carroll will lead to meaningless answers like “We just wanted a new set of eye on things.” Why a new set of eye was needed? on that we can only guess.