The Seahawks have made major coaching moves since the final regular season game. While Pete Carroll remains head coach, the offensive and defensive coordinators will both be new in 2018. Here are the grades of the coaching changes the Seahawks have made so far.
Seahawks fans, did you like Kris Richard? You should have because he coached his defense to two top three finishes in points allowed in two of his three years as defensive coordinator in Seattle. This year, with his unit decimated with injuries, Seattle fell to 13th. Other coordinators would have done far worse. Remember that in the future.
Many 12s did not like Darrell Bevell as the offensive coordinator. Still, during his tenure between 2011 and 2017, Seattle had three of the five highest scoring seasons in franchise history. True, the offense devolved in 2017, but in three years let’s hope as Seahawks fans we aren’t pining for the days of Bevell.
There have been other changes to the coaching staff, but the final big one was bringing in Mike Solari as the offensive line coach in place of Tom Cable. Cable was a respected member of the staff, at least to his NFL peers. Lots of 12s felt Cable should have been let go a few years ago.
And there is a reasoned argument to make for that. Cable’s personality didn’t really fit with Bevell’s or Carroll’s. Plus, he did not get any other member of his unit to develop into a second contract player other than Justin Britt.
As far as the changes made, here are the grades.
Offensive coordinator
Out: Darrell Bevell
In: Brian Schottenheimer
Again, Bevell was not extremely popular with 12s. And he was an easy target to blame. While the Seahawks defense was mostly great until 2017, Bevell’s offenses were much more inconsistent. But they were also still productive.
Under Bevell, Seattle set franchise records for total yards in a season (2015), passing yards in a season (2016) and rushing yards in a year (2014). And those numbers are part of the problem, as strange as that may seem.
Pete Carroll always wanted a run-heavy team that played great defense. From 2012-2014, that is basically what he got. Maybe that was due to Marshawn Lynch? But the offense began to change in 2015 with Russell Wilson doing most of the work. And in 2017 it just got to a ridiculous level of Wilson nearly being the entire offense.
Bevell did not appear to have a fix during this past season for the offense. As the year ended, Wilson was simply tired and the offense terrible.
Enter Schottenheimer. It is true that Schottenheimer has not had a quarterback with the specific talents of Wilson, but the new coordinator also likes to run the ball. Schottenheimer has never had an offense rank higher than 11th in overall production. Twice, though, he has had an rushing offense that ranked in the top five of the NFL. You can bet that is what Carroll noticed.
Carroll has two years left on his Seahawks contract at the end of which he will be 68 years old. Maybe Carroll just wants to end his career his way. And he has earned that.
With Schottenheimer, 12s will see a 2018 Seattle offense that gets the ball to Chris Carson and Mike Davis a lot. Hopefully with some improved coaching, the Seahawks will eat some clock and get the defense off the field more.
If Seattle wants to make the playoffs next season, that better work.
Grade from Bevell to Schottenheimer: C+
Defensive coordinator
Out: Kris Richard
In: Ken Norton Jr.
I want to be clear here, Richard was not a failure as a defensive coordinator. As I said before, two of his three defenses ranked in the top three in points allowed. After the first Arizona Cardinals matchup in week ten – the game in which the Seahawks lost Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor for the year – Seattle was giving up an average of 18.3 points per game. If they had ended this way, they would have ranked fourth in the NFL in points allowed in 2017.
Sensing a theme here? Richard was not a bad coach. And the Dallas Cowboys, who hired Richard to be their defensive backs coach, will be better with him.
But Carroll wanted to make a change back to Norton Jr. The players seem to like Norton Jr. a lot as well. And his coaching style is different than Richard’s. And to be honest, Seattle seemed to be missing an edge, for lack of a better term, to the defense the last couple of years. Norton Jr. should return that and that may be a very good thing.
The issue is that the defenses that Norton Jr. coordinated in Oakland were bad. Was it due to his coaching? Or just because he did not have enough good players? 12s will quickly find out.
And Carroll also hired someone he is extremely familiar with in Norton Jr. Again, if Carroll is leaving soon, he is going out his way.
Grade from Richard to Norton Jr.: C-
Offensive line
Out: Tom Cable
In: Mike Solari
NFL people seemed to really like Cable. But in Seattle, Cable’s offensive lines were usually not very good. Sometimes they were just outright terrible. The other issue is that bit about only Justin Britt getting a second contract of all the linemen Seattle has drafted since Cable came to Seattle.
And the Seahawks have drafted more offensive linemen since 2011 than any other NFL team. There are really no excuses here. Cable’s lines did not develop and underperformed.
Solari has been coaching NFL offensive lines for the last 3,398 years. Julius Caesar was once an offensive guard of his at Rome High. Or so it seems.
But Solari knows of what he does. He seems to have never wanted to do much more than be a line coach, though. And this should work well with Schottenheimer. Whatever the new offensive coordinator wants to do, the new offensive line coach has said he can adapt to.
And Solari simply has to be a better teacher than Cable. For instance, part of the issue with Germain Ifedi may be that he simply was confused on what he needed to do. Solari should be able to simplify things. This hopefully will cut back on Ifedi’s penalties and make him a much more productive player.
Did the New York Giants o-line stink the last two years with Solari as their line coach? Yes. But Solari had absolutely nothing to work with.
Grade from Cable to Solari: B+
Quarterbacks coach
Out: Carl Smith
In: Dave Canales
Not to spend much time on this position change because this one is a bit misleading. Smith was going to be 70 years old in the 2018 season and probably was looking to retire. Canales was the receivers coach and is moving to quarterbacks.
But Canales won’t really be Russell Wilson’s coach; Schottenheimer will be. Canales will just be the coach to pat Wilson on the back.
Grade from Smith to Canales: I
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Of course, there will be more changes to come to the coaching staff, but not any more major changes. These are the ones that really matter.