Jim Moore: Is it possible we’re watching Russell Wilson’s last season in Seattle?

The first time I thought this might be a subpar season for the Seahawks was when oddsmakers set the over-under for number of wins for Pete Carroll’s team at 9 1/2.

I figured that looked pretty low for a team that went 12-4 last year and added a new offensive coordinator to spruce things up on that side of the ball.

And it seemed even more curious since the NFL went to a 17-game schedule this year, meaning it would be easier than it was in the past to get to 10 or more wins.

But here they are at 1-2, after a perplexing 30-17 loss at Minnesota that featured a defenseless and frequently clueless effort by the Seahawks.

Social media is buzzing with unhappy 12’s complaining about coaches and players, demanding answers and offering solutions such as firing defensive coordinator Ken Norton.

I’m with them when it comes to Norton, who has never had a statistically above average defense in Oakland or Seattle. Then again, there are those who think that it’s Carroll’s defense and he’s to blame.

The Seahawks clearly have short-term issues that could carry long-range ramifications. Based on what I’ve seen in the last two games, I don’t think Russell Wilson is going to rescue his team in the fourth quarter as often as he has in the past.

My crystal ball is always so darn cloudy, but if I had to make a bunch of wild guesses, I’d venture to say that:

• This will be Wilson’s last year in Seattle. After a disappointing 9-8 season, his agent will request a trade and really mean it this time.
• The same fans who loved Carroll’s gum-chewing exuberance when things were going well will say he’s too old at 70 to be the coach, and owner Jody Allen might agree with them, sensing after 12 years with perpetually peppy Pete that it’s time for a change.
• This will be Bobby Wagner’s last year in Seattle too. He’s probably a future Hall of Famer but as the Seahawks proved with K.J. Wright, sentimentality won’t impact the Seahawks’ business decisions, especially for an aging veteran scheduled to earn $18 million in 2022.
• Richard Sherman will return to the Seahawks and even if he’s lost a step, he’ll play better than current starting cornerbacks D.J. Reed and Tre Flowers. Even if he doesn’t, Sherman will be like another coach on the sideline, mentoring the younger players and helping them become passable NFL players, of which they’re not right now. (Footnote: I’m already wrong on this one — Sherman signed with Tampa Bay shortly after I filed this column.)
• The Seahawks will lose their next game at San Francisco and the one after that to the Rams on Thursday Night Football to fall to 1-4, and if you think all hell is breaking loose now, just wait for that.
• John Schneider will privately admit that he should have never traded for Jamal Adams nor compounded that mistake by making him the highest-paid safety in the league.

I know I’m probably still in the minority on this one, but I don’t get the Adams love affair. He’s typically rated as a middle-of-the-road safety by Pro Football Focus, and I think he masks his weaknesses in pass coverage with his super-charged style of play.

We see him jumping around and looking nonstop animated, but I wonder if what he adds to the defense is worth $17 million a year. They might have been better off with Marquise Blair at strong safety and spending Adams’ salary elsewhere to shore up other problem areas on the team.

How many splash plays has Adams had this year? I can’t think of any. And last year for all of his sacks, what about the many times he didn’t get to the quarterback? Maybe you’re firmly in Adams’ camp and still believe in him, but before he got injured last year, he was part of a defense that was on a historically bad pace, and he also contributed to a terrible defensive performance against the Vikings.

Have you ever seen receivers that open that often in a Seahawks game? OK, come on, aside from the first eight games last year, wise guy. It was bad enough but after the game, Reed and Flowers talked about problems with the defensive scheme, taking some of the blame but throwing part of it on the coaching staff, presumably Norton.

So one week after Carroll and Wilson had differences on how Wilson should have handled the Seahawks’ only series in overtime in a loss to Tennessee, you’ve got cornerbacks questioning coverages. In-house turmoil in the first month of the season can’t be good.

From what I heard Monday, fans were also less than jacked about the offense, but the Seahawks didn’t get the ball much in the second half because their defense couldn’t stop one time-consuming drive after another by the Vikings.

And the offense is far from being the worst in the league like the defense is, allowing 440 yards a game and still looking for its first interception

I remember a time in my distant past when a boss of mine had to make a decision between dismissing one colleague of mine or another, and when he said who it was, I told him: “You chose the wrong one.” That led to a closed-door meeting that could have been avoided if I didn’t have such a big mouth.

But in this instance, I feel the same way with the Seahawks - if they were going to dust one coordinator in the offseason, it should have been Norton instead of Brian Schottenheimer. You’re right, I know the offense was a mess in the second half of the season, but I don’t blame Schottenheimer as much as Carroll for that.

I’m guessing Schottenheimer was just following Pete’s marching orders and turned into a fall guy as a result. After all, Schotty was the guy who wanted to let Russ cook. If I’m him, I’m snickering when I hear that Seattle is supposedly having problems on offense again, with Shane Waldron, his shiny new replacement, running the show.

On Monday Carroll said it’s a long season, indicating that there’s plenty of time to fix his team. But there’s a different definition of a long season, the kind of which we’re familiar with when it comes to the Mariners. Now one could be in the offing for the Seahawks too.

Jim Moore has covered Washington’s sports scene from every angle for multiple news outlets. You can find him on Twitter @cougsgo.

This story was originally published September 29, 2021 at 5:30 AM.