Should Seahawks stick with 3-TE’s in red zone approach?

The Seattle Seahawks have struggled mightily against two of the least potent teams in the NFL these past two weeks and you can look at the offense as a major factor in these struggles. The red zone in particular is a major concern for Seattle at this point in time, without Sidney Rice out wide to take away a safety from the box in the run game.

The Seahawks are generally a smash-mouth football team that will crush your will to compete by sending the Beast at the end zone inside the 20 yard line. However the previous two games after Rice went out the Hawks seem tentative against that extra safety and hesitant to run Marshawn Lynch into the teeth of the defense.

Without Rice in the ballgame, the Seahawks have reverted to opening back up the formation and play-actioning the defense in an attempt to get outside the stacked box, or going shotgun and running read-option. While both of those options present good looks to the defense, there’s no reason the Hawks can’t just line up and run the ball, even if all 11 are stacked in the box.

It might be a good time for Pete Carroll and company to start busting out the 3-tight end look again. There are a couple ways to do it. Bunch them in as linemen and use motion for the deception or put two in the line and throw your worst blocker into the WR slot to give the defense something to think about.

Putting a 6’7 Kellen Davis up against a corner is an easy way to move a safety. There isn’t a cornerback in the league that can match up 1-on-1 in that situation. Motioning Davis into the formation also creates a quandary for the defense. There’s just a lot of things the Seahawks could do with this.

At any rate, it’s obvious that #feedthebeast needs to become a Darrell Bevel mantra going forward. Marshawn Lynch is the best red zone back in football and the Seahawks would be wise to find ways to be comfortable handing him the football down there.