Seahawks: Russell Wilson played vital role in choosing OC

Russell Wilson played vital role in choosing OC.

Seattle Seahawks star quarterback Russell Wilson had a rough second half of the season with a QB Rating under 95.0 in five of his final six games, and the organization clearly needed to make a change in philosophy to help get the most out of their MVP-caliber signal-caller. Thus, Brian Schottenheimer was fired, and Seattle brought in Shane Waldron as their new offensive coordinator.

“12’s”, as Seahawks fans are known, will be happy to know that Wilson and the new coordinator should be on the same page from Day 1. Because according to former NFL quarterback Brock Huard, in an appearance on 710 ESPN Seattle’s Danny and Gallant, Waldron was Wilson’s pick.

Here’s the transcript from Brandon Gustafson of 710 ESPN Seattle:

“I’ll say this … before the hire was made before that news came out, there were a number of different people that said to me this was Russell’s guy.”

Waldron is the former passing-game coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams, so he has experience working with a high-flying passing attack that can maximize the level of talent at the skill positions while aiding a limited quarterback. With Seattle, Waldron will go from working with an average passer in Jared Goff to a true star in Wilson.

Last season, Wilson threw for 40 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in the 2020 NFL season, but his yards per attempt average fell to 7.5, which was his lowest output since 2017. The Seahawks were a 9-7 team that year. This past season, they were bounced out of the playoffs by Waldron’s Rams in the first round.

Russell Wilson could lead the Seahawks to a stronger season in 2021

Now, Wilson looks like a good candidate for an MVP-level season with a coordinator he seemingly trusts. A quarterback, especially one who is the face of the franchise and capable of leading the team to a Super Bowl, needs to have a great rapport with his coordinator.

Without speculating on the relationship between Schottenheimer and Wilson – which may have been highly positive – the team’s recent struggles indicate that Seattle may have been restricting Wilson’s arm talent at quarterback by relying on the running game in an unimaginative offense.

The Seahawks organization will hope that both men can put their heads together and work to create an offense that is multi-dimensional and improves from being 17th in the league in total yardage and 19th in yards per pass attempt. Those are mediocre numbers for an offense that has the potential to be one of the NFL’s best with Wilson at the helm.