Well, you have to look at what Russ's image was. This is a business and there wasn't a hotter 5 names in the league than #3. And I think Pete honestly completely underestimated the way Russ has handled the last two years. It's borderline unchecked narcissism. He's not just ignoring Pete, it's obvious he's also ignoring Waldron. I gurantee that there's no way any even in the front office saw Russ pulling what he had.
But when you look at it from the other business side... Russ's side, what else is there to do? I think he knew last year that Pete was pissed and Schotty couldn't have been happy because his job was on the line because of the poor QB execution. So they were no doubt going to try and put him back in a place where the errant play we see now was kept in check by keeping Russ in a managerial role... so no MVP, no all time great talk... those accolades don't go to game managers and Russ had already heard enough of the good, not great talk early in his career.
So what card does he play? The only one he has. Turn the focus to his stats, his completion percentage ( partially due to the conservative role he played early on and the fact that he rarely throws traditional timing routes).
Spin the narrative to one where he's being held back be Pete and that the offense is stale, not because he doesn't execute it, but because the calls suck. And he knows it will work because the media machine talks soundbites, not necessarily facts (kind of like this forum)
And why do that? Because he knows that he needs to buy a year and put off as long as he can the truth that he struggles doing simple things like reading defenses because his 2022 plans don't include Seattle. Why wait? Because he has DK and Tyler setting records for him. It's saleable material to leverage his next deal.
For Russ this is a calculated business play gone wrong. He's overestimated his own ability to continue the magic he convinced himself was squashed last year not by his own inability to execute, but by Pete taking control away. I think he's been stubborn about the truth a long time, especially this offseason and in the most remarkable way right now. He is completely denying the fact that his play is killing the offense.
It makes me wonder if he isn't himself going to plan his own exit here soon (Blame it on his finger) if things don't turn. He's going to have to if he wants to secure his legacy. That, or he gives up trying to play Russ ball and plays within the offense ... which essentially means running more because it's not as though he can shift gears and all of a sudden see and do the things he hadn't been able to. But it might mean he can find space to maximize what he can do and what the offense is by doing something other than going boom or bust.
