All it takes for your dreams to come true: What we've learned about 2023 Seahawks

Shane Waldron is quickly becoming one of the most inventive minds in the Shanahan lineage

When your job is primarily overseeing other people's work, every so often, it helps to take a step back and analyze your employees' specific talents so you can put them in the best position to succeed. I've had a modicum of success in supervisory roles by taking this approach, and Shane Waldron has exemplified this strategy in the two and a half years he's been the Seahawks' offensive coordinator.

What do the Seahawks have that stands out on offense? Well, Geno Smith has a ton of arm talent and no reservations about using it for anything, and the two primary receivers are big-time deep threats, so why not dial up an offense that can go deep as often as possible?

The offensive line is hurt and our fullback is more or less a special teams player? That's fine, why not go grab all the dual-purpose tight ends we can get our hands on? Oh, the offensive line is all hurt and it stands to reason that Geno is going to get swallowed alive by Aidan Hutchinson and Brian Burns? Okay, then move the tight ends into the backfield and run offset full house formations that the NFL has literally never seen before.

Oh, did I mention they can throw the ball out of those formations, too? Or that at any moment, they can kick one of those TEs out to the weak side and run split zone? Or the possibility that they have only scratched the surface of, where both offset TEs become lead blockers you don't have to pull and lanes clear for either of Seattle's very talented halfback duo on toss plays?

Football has long been moving in the same direction as every other sport, where eventually, the vast majority of players will be functionally position-less, and will simply fill a variety of roles depending on down, distance, and formation, so as not to give anything away. The full house backfield used to be simply an outmoded gimmick, used for running the ball and not much else. Shane Waldron is using it to push football forward. He's going to be difficult to hang onto, but retaining him at any cost will be worth it.

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