Seahawks Shane Waldron and Russell Wilson: the new Dynamic Duo

The Seahawks made a bold move this offseason when they grabbed L.A. passing game coordinator Shane Waldron and gave him the reigns of the Seattle offense. 12s rallying cry all last year was Let Russ Cook. That worked for a while – until it didn’t. Does Waldron have what it takes to make Russell Wilson even better?

Let’s check the Wayback Machine for some context. Not too way back, though. As all 12s know, the Seahawks offense hasn’t exactly been the hallmark of the team, despite the best efforts of a certain celebrated quarterback.

Even though the 2020 edition of the Seahawks fielded the highest-scoring offense in franchise history, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer was let go. The consensus was that the Hawks and Wilson could do even better, that Schottenheimer’s scheme was too conservative.

Seahawks Russell Wilson and Shane Waldron form a great duo

Mind you, he was brought in to revamp an offense that many – including me – had felt grown stagnant and predictable under former OC Darrell Bevell. In Bevell’s first year as the Hawks OC, Seattle ranked just 23rd in offense. Then Russell Wilson showed up in 2012, and the Seahawks offense magically leaped to ninth in the league.

Bevell got Seattle’s offense rolling as high as fourth in the league in 2015. But then the bottom dropped out as the Seahawks fell to18th in points scored the next season. Pete – and the 12s – had seen enough, and we got Brian, Son of Marty.

His first year wasn’t exactly great, but even with the patchwork running game – let’s make that hospital ward running game – the Hawks offense improved under Schotty, despite the fact they never could replace Chris Carson. Over the next three seasons, Schottenheimer’s offense would never score less than 400 points per season. The Hawks capped his run off with that record-setting year. The offense did improve, but the 12s and Carroll – and most notably DangeRuss – were left wanting more.