Pete Carroll says Seahawks won’t be “Ground Chuck”
The Seahawks have definitely committed to the run in 2018. Don’t worry, they’ll still throw the ball a lot. They still have Mr. Unlimited.
Seattle has made a ton of moves this offseason to get their running game back to dominance. The Seahawks drafted a running back in the first round for the first time under Pete Carroll and John Schneider. They added run blocking beasts through free agency. So it isn’t a reach to think Seattle will be all about the run in 2018.
Pete Carroll says, not so fast, buttercup. Despite drafting Rashaad Penny and signing D.J. Fluker, the Seahawks will still be a balanced team. They may be focused on bringing the fullback into the offense more than ever, but rest assured, they will still air it out. We know this is true because Pete said so himself.
Google Seahawks and run, and you’ll find no limit of articles about the redoubled commitment to getting the ground game back on track. We’ve certainly written our share of these. Speaking with the always magnificent Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times, Carroll made it crystal clear that the Seahawks won’t shift too heavily to the run.
"“It isn’t like three yards and a cloud of dust. It ain’t Ground Chuck. It’s about balance, so you can formulate your whole approach and you make your opponents have to deal with all aspects of this game.”"
Seattle Seahawks
The running game isn’t just about yards
The Seahawks ranked 23rd in rushing yards last year, and 25th in 2016. From 2012 through 2015, they never ranked lower than 4th in the NFL in rushing yards. Here’s a more telling stat: simply the number of rushing plays. From 2012 – 2015, Seattle averaged 517.5 running plays per season. From 2016-2017 that average took a huge drop to 406 rushes per season. That’s seven fewer runs per game, on average. And you know what happens at the end of most running plays? That’s right, the clock keeps running too. That’s a lot of extra time the defense doesn’t have to be on the field.
That being said, you aren’t going to have one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks ever just hand off for the whole game. To get the running game back where the Seahawks want it, we’re talking about running the ball seven or eight more times per game.
Even if it didn’t create more opportunities (and it would), at most that means seven fewer pass attempts per game for Russell Wilson. That drops him from 548 attempts, his average of the past two years, to 436 attempts. Of course he’d have more than that, but he won’t have to throw 550 times a game, and that’s the point.
By the way, remember how many times Wilson threw the year Seattle won the Super Bowl? 407 times. That’s it, just 407. Don’t worry, Wilson will throw a lot more than that. As Pete Carroll said, this ain’t Ground Knox. What the improved running game will do is bring balance to the Seahawks offense. And balance will not only keep Wilson healthy, it will keep the CenturyLink scoreboard healthy, too.