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.
Shane Waldron delivers for the Seahawks
A glance to the south, and we saw the ball had been flying all over the field in Los Angeles. The Rams passing yards jumped from 10th in the league in 2017 to fifth and fourth in the next two years. The difference was QB Jared Goff and passing game coordinator Shane Waldron. Yes, they dropped back to 13th in 2020, but I’d say that decline rests on Jared Goff’s shoulders much more than Waldron’s.
Surely, no one thought Goff was one of the league’s best QB’s – least of all, the Rams. After all, you don’t send the QB you love and two first-round picks for a player that’s six years older, right? Not unless he’s a big upgrade, you don’t. Sadly, I believe Stafford is a major upgrade for the Rams.
Ah, but Waldron knew there was a quarterback in Seattle that was just a little better. Okay, let’s make that tons better. It should be no surprise that Waldron was eager to not only move up to the offensive coordinator gig but work with a QB of Wilson’s caliber. I’m pretty sure most OC’s would look at Seattle and be pretty happy with who they saw calling the signals.
Pete Carroll clearly liked what he saw in Shane Waldron, too. For that matter, so did we here at 12thManRising. When all the buzz about Number 3 supposedly looking for a trade was flying around, I posited that the arrival of Shane Waldron should be all Russ needed to stay in Seattle. Obviously, Mr. Unlimited wasn’t leaving the Seahawks anyway, but I’m pretty sure Waldron’s arrival didn’t hurt. Our own Carson Schroer predicted a few months ago that the Seahawks offense would flourish under Waldron’s tactical schemes.
Shane Waldron’s got the right ingredients and the right recipes
So, did the Seahawks improve under Waldron? Well, let’s see: jet sweeps, check. Play-action, check. Hitting underneath routes, check. All of the expanded weapons we expected from a Shane Waldron offense were on full display Sunday. And we still got the spectacular deep ball from Wilson to a streaking wideout, in this case, Tyler Lockett.
As John Boyle wrote for The Seahawks Wire, Shane Waldron got off to a great start against a Colts defense that ranked in the top ten last season. Make no mistake, this was an excellent test for the new OC.
"“The day, to me, really goes to Shane,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “His first time out, and the chance to show it. I’m really, really proud of what he was able to do, because he went for it the whole time. We did it exactly how we’ve been practicing, and how we’ve been preparing, and how he handled it was such a cool overall mentality and all.”"
In the same article, Wilson made it clear how impressed he is with Waldron’s experience and ability. He said his new OC is “like a wizard”, but that he still has a lot of control over the game, too. All good little 12s know how DangeRuss number 3 can be when he’s allowed to improvise.
Tyler Lockett added that the Hawks have learned that they can take what the defense gives them and still make big plays. We’ve all seen Seattle try to force the ball over and over, and never make the right adjustment. Hopefully, we’ve seen the end of that approach in Seattle.
It’s also very important to point out that despite the attention the passing game got – deservedly so – Chris Carson still rumbled for 91 yards on 16 carries. Pete likes his offense to be balanced, and he has to be happy with this part of Sunday’s report card too: 27 runs, 23 passes. Now 12s, just imagine how this offense will continue to improve as the Seahawks dynamic duo of Wilson and Waldron continues to – yes, I’m gonna say it – cook.