Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron is set to square off against his former team the Los Angeles Rams in prime time Week 5.
Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron will face his former team Thursday night when Seattle hosts the Los Angeles Rams in a divisional-round, prime-time standoff.
After spending four years with the Rams organization, this first game has special meaning, of course, but Waldron has no intention of letting it become a distraction.
“There’s a lot of, to state the obvious, great relationships I have with people out in L.A., but as far as the game goes, I think there’s two separate worlds I’m living in right now,” Waldron told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s a football week for me. I’m excited to be in a Thursday night game, a Thursday night setting, divisional game. Just like last week, it was an important game.
“No difference this week as we approach this one coming up quick.”
Both teams are coming off a short week for the contest in Seattle and Waldron clearly has his work cut out for him.
The Seahawks offense showed some improvements today. While the massive explosive plays weren’t there against the Vikings, they were able to effectively attack the middle of the field, run the ball efficiently and extend drives a little better. However, as they did in Weeks 1-2 the offense went completely sour after halftime.
After going up 17-7 at the break, Seattle failed to score another point for the rest of the game. Afterwards, quarterback Russell Wilson said this Seahawks offense has to stay the course.
It’s not the best choice of words. At best, Wilson is only half-right.
Whatever opponents are doing schematically at halftime is clearly not being answered by Seattle’s coaches. Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron should take some of the blame, but this is Pete Carroll’s staff and ultimately the blame lies with him.
More importantly, Wilson is leading one of the most efficient offenses in football.
The Seattle Seahawks lost a football game, giving them a 1-1 record after two weeks of play. As excruciating as their overtime collapse against the Titans was on many levels, some folks have gotten carried away fretting about what it means for the rest of this season. If you hadn’t seen the games and only read fan reactions on Twitteryou’d think this team was somehow 0-4 already, Bobby Wagner had a serious knee injury and that Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson had come to blows on the sideline over just how established the run needs to be.
Let’s pump the breaks and focus. First of all, it’s only one non-conference loss in a 17-game season and the Seahawks have always responded well after a hiccup in the Carroll/Wilson era. More importantly, Wilson is leading one of the most efficient offenses in football, which should give them a strong chance to catch up with the rest of the NFC West.
Heading into Week 3, Seattle’s offense ranks No. 7 in the league in EPA/Play, per Pro Football Focus. Here’s a glance at the top-10.
via Pro Football Focus
The criticique of this group at the moment is a feast-or-famine issue. Either the Seahawks are blowing away opposing defenses with 50+ yard bombs to Tyler Lockett and scoring quick, or they go three-and-out fast with very little going on in-between. The idea is if Wilson embraced the intermmediate attack those short drives wouldn’t be happening nearly as often.
Wilson’s passing chart from Week 2 illustrates the point pretty well.
via NextGenStats
This is hardly a new dynamic, though. Seattle’s passing game has always been boom or bust with Wilson controlling it.
What matters more is Wilson’s instinct to throw deep is a good one – especially because he throws better long balls than anyone else in the sport. Wilson leads the NFL in several deep-passing categories since he was drafted and his willingness to test opponents vertically at any moment makes him one of the league’s most difficult quarterbacks to stop. Getting hung up on Wilson’s not throwing over the middle is like focusing on a supermodel’s one blemish rather than the whole picture. Through two weeks Wilson’s passer rating is the best in the league. Just enjoy it.
For better or worse, this is what Wilson’s game is. Fans should be grateful for that, because it’s his aggressive nature that is driving this offense more than anything.
Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll had a lot of positive things to say about his team’s Week 1 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, but he had especially high praise for first-year offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.
“Really, the day goes to Shane,” Carroll said in his postgame press conference. “I’m really, really proud of what he was able to do because he went for it the whole time. We did it exactly how we’ve been practicing and how we’ve been preparing, and he handled it with such a cool overall mentality and all.”
Carroll commended the rapport between Waldron and quarterback Russell Wilson and expressed hope that they could continue excelling together throughout the rest of the season.
“He and Russ were just cooking,” Carroll said. “I’ve never seen this kind of chemistry be so obvious between a play-caller and a quarterback,” Carroll said. “I hope this is just the first step of a great march together.”
With Week 1 in the books, Seattle will return home to play the Tennessee Titans (0-1) next Sunday at 1:25 p.m. PT.
The Seattle Seahawks’ new offense is going to be a lot of fun, at least if today’s convincing 28-16 win over the Indianapolis Colts is any indication.
Running offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s new scheme, Russell Wilson looked as comfortable as he’s ever been in the NFL, thriving as he threw to every level of the field and to all kinds of different targets. Along the way, Seattle got chunk plays from both of their tight ends, their top running back and their two star wide receivers. Tyler Lockett had the best day of the bunch, posting 100 yards and two scores on just four catches.
After the game, Lockett praised the way they distributed the ball around and got everyone involved while not forcing it to anybody.
Tyler Lockett on Seahawks offense: "I think what we showed is that it doesn't matter who gets the ball. We're gonna feed whoever and however, based off of what it is that a defense chooses to give us, we're not going to force the ball to anybody."
According to Tom Pelissero at NFL Network, Waldron will be calling plays from the sideline rather than in the booth. He wants to have face-to-face communication with quarterback Russell Wilson throughout the game.
Mentioned on @nflnetwork: New #Seahawks OC Shane Waldron will make his NFL play-calling debut on the sideline, not the coaches’ booth (where he was in preseason opportunities with the #Rams). Wants to communicate with Russell Wilson face-to-face throughout the game. @NFLGameDay
Waldron comes to Seattle from Sean McVay’s staff on the Rams, where he served as their passing game coordinator the last three seasons. It should be fascinating to see what tricks and tools he brings to the table. While we didn’t learn much during the preseason, fans should expect to see some of the same staple concepts and a better marriage between run and pass looks. A faster tempo in general may also be in the cards.
Don’t expect an easy path, though – at least not today. The Colts had a top-10 defense in 2020.
Here are four key matchups we will be watching Sunday afternoon.
The Seattle Seahawks visit the Indianapolis Colts tomorrow in their first game of the 2021 NFL season. Both teams made the playoffs last year, so this should make for some quality competition to get the season started.
Here are four key matchups we will be watching Sunday afternoon.
Despite a rough finish to the season, Wilson is still one of the most enticing options at QB in fantasy footbal heading into 2021.
Russell Wilson looked as good as he ever has in the first half of the 2020 season. Had he maintained that pace he easily would have won the NFL MVP award and the Seahawks likely would’ve gone a lot further in the playoffs than they did.
Despite a rough finish to the season, Wilson is still one of the most enticing options at QB in fantasy footbal heading into 2021. In fact, he’s No. 1 on ESPN’s list of fantasy quarterbacks to love this year. Here’s what Matthew Berry had to say about No. 3.
“I’m a believer in new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, and I know we have heard this before, but I do actually think … they let Russ cook this year. . . Wilson not only has massive upside but also an extremely high floor. He is the only QB with 30-plus TD passes in each of the past four seasons, and he has finished top 10 at the position in total points every season since 2013 (and top six in three of the past four campaigns).”
If the Seahawks really do commit to a more up-tempo attack under Waldron – allowing Wilson to get into rhythm and abandon the establish the run nonsense – it could lead to a previously unseen ceiling in fantasy production.
Running back Chris Carson also made Berry’s list of players to love.
