Russell Wilson looks worse under Brian Schottenheimer, not better

New Seahawks offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer was supposed to fix the little issues with Russell Wilson. He’s made the quarterback worse.

Just when 12s were happy to get rid of long-time offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell last year, the Seahawks may have found a worse coordinator in Brian Schottenheimer. Schottenheimer’s resume made it appear that Seattle was going to be serious about getting back to running the ball. So far through two games, the backs have carried the ball 33 times. Chris Carson has run it only 12 times.

But the real problem is that Schottenheimer also hasn’t made Russell Wilson better. He only seems to have made Wilson more hesitant. The Seahawks quarterback has been sacked 12 times so far in 2018, but at least half of those are Wilson’s fault. Wilson holds on to the ball this season longer than he has in previous years. He takes sacks he shouldn’t because of it.

Part of the issue is that Wilson has relied on receiver Doug Baldwin to be there on important plays. Need a third down conversion? Wilson knew where to find Baldwin. But Baldwin isn’t playing due to injury. Seattle’s inability to convert third downs – the team currently ranks 29th in the NFL in picking up third downs – cannot be that the team doesn’t have Baldwin. He is just one receiver.

And Wilson being sacked and being seemingly unsure many times what to do with the ball also cannot be blamed on so many third-and-longs. In week one, for instance, the Seahawks had a decent looking drive working and a second-and-one when Wilson dropped back to pass, was forced from the pocket, spun around and sacked. The issue on the play was that Wilson still had plenty of time to throw the ball away.

Schottenheimer hasn’t taught Wilson that it is OK to chuck a ball out of bounds and live for another down. If anything, Wilson is more reluctant under Schottenheimer to do that.

Wilson wants to do what it asked of him. But instead of incorporating Wilson’s wonderous improvisational skills, Schottenheimer seems hell-bent on turning him into Mark Sanchez. Only Schottenheimer doesn’t call any run plays like Sanchez had under Schottenheimer with the Jets.

Schottenheimer also doesn’t help Wilson with any kind of pass plays that might use the opponent’s aggressiveness against them. Or as Brock Huard tweeted

So Wilson drops back with a play designed with little imagination, doesn’t have his best receiver to throw to and 12s can just see Wilson thinking about what he needs to do. Wilson works best seemingly when he isn’t thinking but reacting. Schottenheimer doesn’t seem to understand this. And sadly, those Darrell Bevell days in Seattle seem like the good ones right now.