About halfway through last season, it was almost inevitable that Klint Kubiak's time as the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator would be limited in time. Sure enough, after his only season on the job, the Las Vegas Raiders made Kubiak their head coach, and he was gone.
Time will tell whether Kubiak is the right fit for the Raiders, and the same goes for Brian Fleury, who has since stepped into Kubiak's place and will call the Seahawks offense next season. Both the Raiders and the Seahawks are taking a risk here, given that Kubiak has no head-coaching experience and Fleury has no experience as the sole coordinator of an offense.Â
Fleury has plenty of coaching experience beyond being a coordinator and has worked with both sides of the ball, but now he'll be entrusted to run an offense that ran away with eight blowouts last season, inside an offense that was pretty darn good. That said, even the Seahawks have areas for improvement, and Fleury has an opportunity to fix some things Kubiak wasn't able to.Â
Brian Fleury has 2 priority areas that need improvement, and the Seattle Seahawks can be an even better offense
Now, that's no slight on Kubiak, of course, because generally speaking, he earned a chance to be a head coach because of what his offense produced in Seattle. Kubiak was instrumental in Sam Darnold's growth and in creating a connection between him and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Additionally, Kubiak got the very best out of Kenneth Walker when the Seahawks needed him the most.
Kubiak did excellent work; there's no argument there. That said, while Walker was able to excel later in the season, Kubiak can be questioned about why the Seahawks' running game was close to non-existent in the first half. On top of that, despite Darnold transitioning into a Super Bowl-winning quarterback and an offense that proved to be dangerous all year, why were they so turnover-prone?
For Fleury to succeed in Seattle, he must find a way to improve two key areas of the Seahawks offense that flew under the radar last year, because 14 wins will cover up most weaknesses. If Fluery can clean up these areas, the Seahawks should be even more dangerous than last season.
Seahawks running Game
The Seahawks' run game didn't pick up until after Week 11's loss to the Los Angeles Rams. It was after that defeat that Walker and Zach Charbonett became a larger part of the game plan.
In Walker's case, especially, his numbers immediately began to rise, and in the playoffs, he was instrumental in the Seahawks getting to the Super Bowl and winning it. He would be crowned the MVP of that game for good reason.
Fleury will be charged with utilizing Jadarian Price from the start, making him and the run game a big part of Seattle's offense. In Seattle's first eight games last season, they averaged just 3.7 yards per carry, but increased that to 4.5 yards in the second half.
Fleury, whose San Francisco 49ers ranked 32nd in the NFL last season in yards per carry (3.4), will have to scheme his offense in favor of the 4.5 yards the Seahawks improved to, and not much worse than that.
Seahawks' turnovers
The Seahawks were one of the worst turnover teams in the league last year, particularly in quarterback turnovers and fumbles. On top of the Seahawks ranking 31st in total turnovers and 32nd in fumbles lost (13), Darnold accounted for 20 turnovers all to himself, six of them were lost fumbles, and 14 interceptions.Â
Kubiak wasn't able to rein in the turnovers, and perhaps it was because Seattle was winning games and the offense was putting up points; the turnovers weren't a priority fix. Winning covers up mistakes; even Smith-Njigba had three lost fumbles of his own.
All in all, it wasn't pretty, and could have been the Seahawks' downfall. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. Fleury has to find a way to keep the turnovers in check, and it has to start with Darnold.Â
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