All right, Seattle Seahawks’ fans – raise your hand if you know who Michael Byrne is. Byrne came to Seattle along with offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. They worked together last season in New Orleans, and Kubiak hired him with the generic title “offensive assistant.”
Don’t feel bad if you don’t recognize the name. One way teams can help counter the limits of a salary cap is to hire more and more coaches. There is no salary cap for coaches. That’s just what most teams have done, so even the most ardent Seattle Seahawks 12 may not identify a new offensive assistant.
If you look at Byrne's resume, you will quickly understand that he fits into one of the newer trends in coaching staff design. Before teaming up with Kubiak, Byrne had worked as an analyst with Pro Football Focus (subscription required) and as director of football analytics at Pacific Lutheran.
That’s right, Michael Byrne is an analytics guy.
Seahawks' Klint Kubiak needs to win one crucial matchup this week against Tampa Bay
If you study the analytics for this week's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, one area looms large if Seattle is to win. Red zone efficiency.
That’s not exactly a surprise. Red zone efficiency is often one of the best predictors of success or failure. Score touchdowns when you move inside your opponent's 20-yard line, and you are likely to win the game. Prevent your opponent from reaching the end zone when they are in the red zone, and you have an even better chance.
The good news for Seattle this week is that when the Bucs’ offense is matched against Seattle’s defense, Mike Macdonald’s crew has a distinct advantage. MacDonald and Aden Durde have built one of the better red zone defenses in the league. Tampa has been struggling in this area in the early part of 2025. Advantage Seattle.
But when Kubiak’s offense is on the field, they will be encountering a very sound Tampa defense. So far this season, the Hawks’ offense and the Tampa defense have been middle-of-the-pack red zone performers. But the sample size is small, and last year, the Bucs’ defense ranked in the top ten at preventing red zone touchdowns.
Why does this matter?
Seattle is 3-1 heading into this week’s matchup. In their three wins, they entered the red zone eleven times and scored eight touchdowns. In their one loss, they only reached the end on one of their three red zone trips.
Kubiak has built an offense that should be very effective in these situations. At least on paper. He has a diverse attack. He has two different backs with differing skill sets who have run for multiple touchdowns from close. Hopefully, their battering ram of a fullback will return this week to block for those runners.
The passing attack is still in search of a reliable deep ball threat, but that does not matter in the red zone. The Hawks have big, physical tight ends. They have a couple of receivers who feast on finding soft spots in a zone. They have a tall rookie wideout who has already caught a short fade for a touchdown this season.
In short, they have all the ingredients they need to be a potent red zone offense.
But there is a flip side to all that diversity. A team that does a lot of things pretty well may not do any one thing exceptionally well. Through four weeks, do the Seattle Seahawks have enough of an offensive identity to give you confidence they will get the ball into the end zone when they get close?
You know what Philadelphia and Kansas City and Buffalo are going to do when the game is on the line. We don’t know that about Seattle yet.
In Week 5 against Tampa Bay, when the Seattle Seahawks get close to the end zone, we’re going to see what Michael Byrne has been cooking up in his analytics lab and see whether Klint Kubiak has a dynamic, Super Bowl-caliber offense in the works, or whether they are both still trying to figure out how this team can truly thrive on offense.