The Seahawks offense in Bevell's final year was marked by historic ineptitude in the rushing game and an ineffective Russell Wilson who had to try to shoulder the entire offense. After missing the playoffs, the staff (including DC Kris Richard and OL coach Tom Cable) was purged as they had to begin anew with a new direction, with renewed emphasis on rushing the ball. They were the best in the league at it the very next year, and Russell had career-best efficiency numbers. The Bevell firing was likely both Pete and Russell's preferred route forward.
Scottenheimer was fired due to philosophical differences after 2020, which is famously the "Let Russ Cook" year where he started at an absurd pace. The offense was befuddled by defensive adjustments after the hottest offensive start the team has had in perhaps it's entire history. Despite the wheels falling off, they had 30 passing touchdowns before the end of November that year. After faltering on offense down the stretch despite mostly winning, they got embarrassed in the playoffs. After the year was over, Schottenheimer was let go after meeting with Carroll, as they apparently had different ideas on where to go from 2020, with Schottenheimer presumably wanting to lean into LRC and Carroll presumably wanting to re-emphasize balance and limiting turnovers. Waldron was then hired with Russell's explicit endorsement.
There are conflicting reports about whether or not Russell wanted Schottenheimer fired as well. Corbin Smith, quoting a team source, claims that Russell lobbied for a new offensive coordinator. Russell Wilson and Broncos insider Benjamin Allbright dispute this.
It was pretty apparent that Russ was the one lobbying for the change in OC in 2020. Schottenheimer brought the best out of Russ in 2019 and the plays were there over the second half of 2020, we just didn't make them. Over the course of Schotty's last year here, Pete repeatedly stated that the solution to their passing issues and the inability to move the ball, was the qb not simply 'taking what was there', and the need to run the ball more. Given that Schotty was known as a run based OC and not a long ball guy, it would seem pretty logical to assume that the guy who stated over and over again that the offense wasn't aggressive enough (through the air), even in thr face of the 'cooking' phase of the season failing, was the one least pleased with his OC. Russ glowing at the Waldron hire and flatly thanking Brian for all he'd done kind of puts a ribbon on things.
In 2023...
Who would call >65% by a wide margin, pass to run?
Why under the prior OC were there underneath routes in PA and now there are few?
Why do we have almost no semblance of a coherent ground game ?
We have NEVER had a stagnant run game (by design) under this coach. And if I'd told you in 2020, that in 2023 we'd be a pass dominant, presnap motion, exotic alignment, light rushing offense, everyone here would have assumed that Pete would have retired, Russ was MVP and our offense was tops in the league.
Thing is, you can't look at past OC failure and Waldron and definitively deduce much because the QB was different and the philosophy has flipped on its head. But some things are apparent. We were always a more balanced offense. Now we are on the league high end for teams that throw more. We rarely ran presnap motion, now we do it regularly. The only thing consistent is relying on PA. But that reliance isn't even executed properly. With Schottenheimer we ran a lot of PA as well but there were more often than not open routes underneath for the QB to go to. That was the frustrating thing about his last 2 years here and why Pete would say - the QB needs to Maybe just take what's there. Now we run PA and there are rarely routes that allow the QB to do much but hold the ball. Some of that is protection up front. But even then, schotty was good and giving Russ an outlet quickly.
With Brian, we also had a much more logical and reliable run game from which to base PA. Now? We are league trailing in the run game by most metrics.
I've said it more times than I can count now. The great part about our problems is that they are of our own design. That's also the bad thing. But... if they decide to get their heads out of their asses, great things are still their to be had.
