Seahawks Coach Leaves Team Before Start of NFL Season

Seattle Seahawks News

Getty Seahawks speical teams coordinator Brian Schneider has left the team.

The Seattle Seahawks will be without special teams coach Brian Schneider after Pete Carroll announced he left the team for “personal reasons.” It is unclear if Schneider will return, or if he was with the Seahawks leading up the team’s opening matchup against the Falcons.

Carroll did not elaborate on the specific reason Schneider will not be with the team, aside from “personal reasons” or if there is a chance he returns to coach later this season. He added that Larry Izzo will take over as special teams coach indefinitely. The announcement came at the end of Carroll’s final weekly press conference and was unprompted by any particular media question.

“One thing, I’ll tell you is that Brian Schneider has left the team for personal reasons, and Larry Izzo will take over,” Carroll explained. “He’ll be running special teams. Just so you know ahead of time, just wanted to make sure that you knew that.”

Izzo is listed as the Seahawks assistant special teams coach on the team’s website. He is in his third season with the Seahawks after seven years with the Giants and Texans. Prior to beginning coaching, Izzo had a 14-year playing career that he utilizes with the players.

The special teams unit has not performed particularly well in recent years, but the timing of the coaching move is odd given there is just one day remaining before the start of the 2020 NFL season. It will be interesting to see if the change has any impact on the Seahawks’ Week 1 matchup against the Falcons.


The Seahawks Are 2.5-Point Favorites Over the Falcons

Heading into the season kickoff, the Seahawks are 2.5-point road favorites over the Falcons, per OddsShark. Seattle initially opened up as 1.5-point favorites but the line continues to move towards the Seahawks.

These teams are very familiar with each other as Falcons head coach Dan Quinn is the former Seahawks defensive coordinator. This will be the fifth time the Seahawks and Falcons have played each other in the last five seasons. Carroll admitted that the Seahawks are “dying to see where we are” heading into Week 1.

“We’re dying to see where we are,” Carroll noted, per Seahawks.com. “We’ve been working really hard at it, of course, and you don’t know until you get out there and start matching up and see what happens. (Atlanta) is a good club and they’ve got a lot of good experienced football players, a good experienced staff and all that, so we’re going to get checked out. It’ll be a good gauge for us, we’ll see where we stand, and we’re really looking forward to it.”


Many Seahawks Fans Are Hoping for a More Aggressive Offense in 2020

Aside from special teams, questions surround the Seahawks offense as Russell Wilson subtly hinted throughout the offseason he would like more control. The Seahawks frequently got off to slow starts in 2019 putting pressure on Wilson to often orchestrate comebacks.

“Yeah, I definitely think so [I need to be involved sooner],” Wilson noted earlier in training camp. “I think the reality is early in the games, rather than us having to be in the fourth quarter to be able to make some stuff happen. I think we have a crazy stat of 56-0 when we have the lead by halftime. Getting ahead is a key thing. I definitely believe in finishing strong. We won a lot of games in the fourth quarter and do some fun things in the fourth quarter, at the end of games. Let’s treat every quarter as the fourth. I think that’s my mentality, always.”

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