The Seattle Seahawks have their man as the team is on the verge of hiring Los Angeles Rams passing game coordinator Shane Waldron to be their next offensive coordinator, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The move comes just weeks after the Seahawks were dominated by the Rams in the first round of the NFL playoffs.
Sean McVay has built one of the more dynamic offenses in the NFL and the Seahawks could lean on some similar schemes as Waldron heads north. ESPN 710 Seattle’s Jake Heaps is close friends with Russell Wilson and the former Seahawks backup praised the hire.
“Text I received from a source on staff with the Rams. ‘This is a bigger loss for us than people realize. Shane is a great match for Russ,'” Heaps explained on Twitter. “Yeah, I’m excited! 🔥”
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McVay Described Waldron as a ‘Whole Lot More Than a Passing Game Coordinator’
Waldron was linked to the Lions opening in 2018, and McVay praised the coach’s readiness to make the jump to a coordinator role. McVay described Waldron as “a whole lot more than a passing game coordinator.”
“I think Shane has given us a whole lot more than a passing game coordinator,” McVay explained at the time, per Pride of Detroit. “I think the leadership that he provides, the steady force as far as just a great demeanor, a great presence, (he’s) somebody that I can certainly learn from.”
Waldron started out with the Rams in 2017 as the tight ends coach but was quickly promoted to the team’s passing game coordinator in 2018. The Seahawks new offensive coordinator also has experience working with Bill Belichick. Waldron spent 2002 to 2009 with the Patriots and was the team’s tight ends coach in his final season in New England.
The Big Question Is How Much Power Carroll Will Give Waldron to Run the Offense
We know things ended poorly in Brian Schottenheimer’s tenure with the Seahawks, and the big question is how involved Carroll will continue to be in the offense. Carroll intervened in a fourth-and-one play call that led to the Seahawks receiving a critical delay of game penalty against the Rams in the Wild Card round. The Seahawks coach emphasized the need to get the defenses out of two-deep safety looks next season.
“I want to see if we can run the ball more effectively to focus the play of the opponents and see if we can force them to do things like we’d like them to do more, like we have been able to do that in the past,” Carroll said during his end-of-the-season press conference, via Seattle 950 KJR. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to run the ball 50 times a game. It means we need to run the ball with direction and focus and style that allows us to dictate the game. I mean I just, frankly, I’d like to not play against two-deep looks all season long next year. And so we have to be able to get that done. It’s not just the running game. It is the style of passes that will help us some, but we have to get after it a little bit differently. As it unfolded in the end of the season, it became really obvious. In the last four or five games, it became really obvious.”
Wilson Admitted to Not Being in Favor of the Seahawks Firing Schottenheimer
Wilson admitted he was not in favor of the team parting ways with Schottenheimer but added he trusted Carroll to make the right decision. It will be interesting to see how much Wilson was involved in the hiring process. Wilson stressed the need to be on the “same wavelength” with the team when the next offensive coordinator is hired.
“It’s vital, it’s critical, it’s super significant that I’m a part of that process,” Wilson explained, per Seahawks.com. “Coach and I have definitely been talking about it, John too, and we’ve had some great dialogue about the thought process of who we want, the idea of the kind of leader, innovator, all that kind of different stuff we want.”
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Seahawks to Hire Rival Coach to be Next Offensive Coordinator: Report