On Tuesday night, reports emerged that the Seattle Seahawks should hire Los Angeles Rams Passing Game coordinator Shane Waldron as the new offensive coordinator to replace Brian Schottenheimer. It had been two long weeks for many fans who knew each name linked to the team and rode the roller coaster of emotions up and down. Assuming the Hawks actually hire Waldron, this opens up a number of questions about the future of the Seattle attack in 2021, so here are just a few.
What will happen to the offensive line?
This is a huge question, and while the answer is important, perhaps more important, how the team addresses the needs of its people along the offensive line in the coming weeks can shed significant light on how the team plans to run the ball in 2020. Under the command of Brian Schottenheimer, the offensive lineman Mike Solari gathered a group of attackers from the offensive line, mainly inland.
However, while they are huge, many of the attackers who have worked within the Seattle offensive line in recent seasons were not the most agile. Whether you want to see DJ Fluker, Mike Iupati, Jordan Simmons, Kyle Fuller or Damien Lewis, all the electricians that Solari brought in were big and powerful. That said, they weren’t exactly explosive or fast, which may be initially worrying could prevent Waldron if his goal is to use a wide-zone based racing scheme, as Sean McVay does.
This does not mean sadness and sadness on the subject, as the Hawks certainly have the basis of a line that can play on a wide zone system in Duane Brown, Brandon Shell, Phil Haynes and Lewis. However, as they seek to address the depth on the 2021 offensive line during the off-season, it may shed light on how the attack plans to work going forward.
The Rams are a racing team, so Seattle is going to keep running, right?
One of the great things that observers quickly brought about the Rams is that their attack is built around the racing game and, in particular, that Los Angeles was near the end of the league in passing frequency during Waldron’s term.
The only thing anyone could have predicted with the Seattle OC search: Pete Carroll’s choice would not be foreign to the race-focused attacks. Carroll’s story and comments about the need to run more have taken it for granted. During Waldron’s four seasons with the Rams, they were 25th in the dropout rate.
– Brady Henderson (@BradyHenderson) January 27, 2021
The drop rate, however, can be misleading. Like the statistics that show that playoff teams are generally close to the top of the league in terms of running, this is usually a result of the fact that playoff teams run a lot because they are winning. The same is true for the Rams during Waldron’s four seasons with the team, as in neutral situations (first and second defeats with the result of the game in doubt), the Rams were the fifth happiest team with passes in the league.
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It will be interesting to know exactly where the Seahawks fall into that category next year. It’s no secret that Pete Carroll seems to prefer to be closer to the bottom of the list, while chef Russel Wilson seems to prefer to be closer to the top. Fans and observers can speculate as much as they like, and they are sure to do so in the next seven and a half months, but no one outside of VMAC will likely have a clue by September 12.
What does this mean for wide receivers?
Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf are unlikely to go anywhere and are expected to take the top two in 2021. However, it is behind them that things will get interesting. There were flashes of David Moore and Phillip Dorsett, both of whom shone a few times in their careers, but neither has extensive practice or gaming experience like a wideout on the West Coast Offense. This is important because of a fact that differentiates the West Coast attack from the Air Coryell or Erhardt-Perkins attack, in which Dorsett and Moore played during their careers.
Investigating the full meaning of this is an article entirely in itself, and will be published at some point. However, in the meantime, suffice it to say that when discussing options in the third wide receiver wave in the off-season, the team could focus on free agents who spent time playing for West Coast Offense. There is certainly no guarantee that Moore or Dorsett will be out of the house, but it will come as no surprise if Waldron seeks to bring in a player more familiar with the McVay system.
Whether that means a return for former Seahawks receiver Paul Richardson, bringing Josh Reynolds along with the Rams or diving into a restricted free agency to chase Kansas City Chiefs’ Byron Pringle is yet to be seen.
Of course, there will be many more questions for fans and observers in the coming weeks and months. The way the team addresses certain personal issues can go a long way in answering what the attack on the field will look like next season.