Seahawks make great decision in hiring Shane Waldron as new OC

The Seattle Seahawks have reportedly filled their open offensive coordinator position by hiring Shane Waldron. Going with the former Rams coach is a great move. Waldron helped scheme an offense in Los Angeles that ran the ball a lot but did it creatively instead of simply pounding the ball up the middle.

It is easy to envision Tyler Lockett having the ability to be a lot more versatile in an offense led by Waldron. Jet sweeps and being creative with receivers in the slot was a big part of the Rams scheme. And this is what should make Waldron such a great hire if he is left to design most of the offense.

When Brian Schottenheimer became the Seahawks offensive coordinator in 2018, he was only able to incorporate about 30 percent of what he wanted to do and the other 70 percent was mostly what Pete Carroll wanted to do.

Waldron has not called offensive plays anytime recently, however, so it will be interesting to see what he brings to this part of his role. Seahawks fans should hope he was with Sean McVay long enough to pick up how to do so.

Seahawks and running the ball

McVay, however, is the rare coach who can have an extremely effective offense while running the ball nearly as much as a team throws it. Los Angeles dropped back to pass on 55.75 percent of their plays in 2020, 25th in the NFL. Carroll has said he wants to run the ball much more effectively (and probably just more) in future seasons and the hire of Waldron, learning from McVay, should do just that.

Now the biggest question is how much Waldron can help Russell Wilson. Maybe he can coach Wilson to throw underneath more and take what is given. Waldon should also be able to incorporate Wilson’s elusiveness into the offense more than Schottenheimer did.

Waldron has been a Rams assistant for the last four years under Sean McVay and also coached with McVay when both were offensive coaches for the Washington Football Team. With the Rams, Waldron served as passing game coordinator for the Rams the past three seasons and was quarterbacks coach as well in 2019.