By Gregg Bell
The News Tribune
The Seahawks’ new play caller is apparently going to be from the Rams. That means from a run-based, play-action passing game with short, quick throws.
Precisely what Pete Carroll said he wanted.
Carroll “is planning to hire” Los Angeles Rams passing-game coordinator Shane Waldron as Seattle’s new offensive coordinator. That’s according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter Tuesday night, citing “a source.”
Waldron emerged as a candidate this past weekend, later in the three weeks since Carroll fired Brian Schottenheimer after three seasons calling Wilson’s plays.
Waldron is a 41-year-old native of Portland. He has been the Rams’ passing game coordinator for the last three years. Waldron got that job in Los Angeles after Matt LaFleur left to become offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans then head coach of the Green Bay Packers.
The caution of Carroll’s hiring his fourth offensive coordinator in his 11 years leading the Seahawks: Waldron has no experience in the job.
Wait…that’s not entirely true. Waldron was the OC for Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, a day school in Cambridge, Mass., in 2011.
Yet this is the experience level Carroll was seekingâ��”and likely could get.
Established, former head coaches and experienced play callers either said “Nah, I’ll sit this year out” (Doug Pederson) or took other play-caller jobs with first-time head coaches instead of with Carroll after the Seahawks asked (Anthony Lynn as Detroit’s new OC and Shane Steichen to the same job with the Chargers this week).
Carroll wanted a play caller who is based in the run, and a disciple of quick, short passing. Carroll said late in this past season those are the characteristics Seattle’s offense lacked under Schottenheimer to best adapt to how defenses adjusted to the Seahawks in 2020.
The biggest beneficiaries to Waldron running the offense could become the Seahawks’ offensive linemenâ��”and Wilson’s Monday mornings getting out of bed. The linemen may not have to block as long as they had to in 2020 for all of Wilson’s deep throws. Wilson got sacked 48 times in 16 regular-season games, tied for third-most sacks absorbed in the NFL, as Seattle went 60-40 in pass-run play-call percentage. That was out of whack for what Carroll wants.
It’s safe to assume Wilson is all in on Carroll choosing Waldron and that, yes, Wilson was involved in the decision. The franchise’s $140 million quarterback spoke two weeks ago of this being a “super-critical” hire and a crucial point in his career. Wilson turns 33 during next season and has three seasons remaining on his Seahawks contract.
Waldron’s been on coach McVay’s staff since Los Angeles hired McVay in 2017. Waldron was first a tight ends coach with the Rams. He became McVay’s passing-game coordinator in 2018.
In that ‘18 season, Waldron helped plan L.A.’s passing offense that finished fifth in the NFL in yards passing, fourth in yards per pass, and eighth in touchdowns. Jared Goff had a career year in his third season, and the Rams advanced to Super Bowl 53 in Waldron’s first season as Los Angeles’ passing-game coordinator.
In 2019 McVay made Waldron the quarterbacks coach for Goff, after Rams assistant Zac Taylor left to become the head man of the Cincinnati Bengals. In the 2019 preseason, McVay gave Waldron some experience calling plays in L.A.’s exhibition games.
That year, McVay told media covering the Detroit Lions (who were in the market for a new offensive coordinator at the time) that Waldron was “absolutely” ready then to be an NFL OC.
In 2020, Waldron went back to being the Rams’ passing-game coordinator, and Liam Coen became the Rams’ quarterbacks coach.
McVay’s offense is a system based on the run, on play-action passes and bootlegs off it, with short, quick throws with a ton of crossing routes. That scheme has given Carroll’s defense problems for years.
Carroll said in November, December and this month after NFC West-champion Seattle’s season-ending playoff loss to the Rams that the Seahawks’ offense needs to “adapt better” to how defenses played them over the latter half of 2020. That lack of adaptation is why Carroll fired Brian Schottenheimer Jan. 11 over what the Seahawks announced were “philosophical differences.”
Carroll wants to get defenses out of the two-high-safety schemes that largely shut down Wilson’s deep-passing game after it flourished during the first half of the 2020 season. The ways to do that are with more running the ball and on quicker, shorter throws.
Of Wilson’s 27 passes and season-low 11 completions against the Rams in Seattle’s loss in the wild-card playoffs Jan. 9, only three went for completions of 10-19 yards. That’s the range on which Waldron’s passing game with Los Angeles has focused the last few seasons.
Waldron was a tight end and long snapper for Tufts through the 2001 season. His first NFL job was an operations intern for the New England Patriots in 2002, which was also his senior year at Tufts. Tom Brady was in his second season as the Patriots’ starting quarterback that year.
