Seahawks midseason grades: Some studs and some duds

Coaching

Shane Waldron

I feel like there are two possibilities with Waldron’s offense so far. Even when Russell Wilson was playing the offense didn’t look drastically different than the previous seasons with Wilson looking to throw deep on important third downs when a check-off would do. There isn’t a ton of versatility and the tight ends don’t get the ball enough.

So Waldron is either being hamstrung by the overall design of the team and injuries to Wilson and Chris Carson. Or Waldron simply isn’t that great of an offensive coordinator. The offense has been too inconsistent from even half to half to prove otherwise so far.

Grade: C-

Ken Norton Jr.

We have seen in the first half of 2021 what we saw over the entire year last season. The first half of the year, the defense was terrible. But in the second half, against quarterbacks who aren’t as good, the defense is better. I still don’t think Norton, Jr. should be the defensive coordinator and, assuming Aaron Rodgers returns in week 10, the Seahawks will be greatly tested by Rodgers with the Packers and Kyle Murray with the Cardinals the following week.

Norton, Jr. simply doesn’t know how to make excellent adjustments from drive-to-drive or have an idea of how to truly attack an offense.

Still, Seattle is 15th in yards-allowed-per-play (5.5), 12th in yards-allowed-per-rush (4.2),17th in quarterback-rating-allowed (94.4) and ninth in points-allowed-per-game (21.1) so maybe, just maybe, this defense is better than we think it is.

Grade: C

Pete Carroll

I am going to save this last paragraph to remind 12s who want to give up on Carroll that he has made the playoffs in 9 of his 11 seasons in Seattle, been to two Super Bowls and won one. He was preparing the Seahawks for success defensively even before Russell Wilson arrived in 2012. That said, he does seem to micromanage the offense a bit too much while trusting Norton, Jr. too much so that is an issue.

Grade: B-