Pete Carroll’s first words describing new Seahawks OC Shane Waldron: ‘excited, creative’
The first word Pete Carroll uses to describe his new play caller Shane Waldron?
“Excited.”
The second is “creative.”
Seattle on Friday formally announced the team’s already-known hiring of Waldron—whom Carroll said was a “must-get” as his new offensive coordinator—and Andy Dickerson as run-game coordinator.
Waldron was the Los Angeles Rams’ passing-game coordinator under coach Sean McVay the last three seasons.
Dickerson, who went to school and was a college-football teammate of Waldron’s at Tufts University outside Boston, has been the Rams’ assistant offensive line coach the last nine seasons.
So Carroll has taken two assistants from the division-rival Rams, who ended the Seahawks’ reign of the NFC West in 2018 and Seattle’s 2020 season in the first round of the playoffs three weeks ago.
Waldron, 41 and a native of Portland, replaces Brian Schottenheimer and becomes the fourth offensive coordinator under Carroll since the head man took over the Seahawks in January 2010. Carroll fired Schottenheimer Jan. 11 after three seasons as Seattle’s play caller.
“We are really excited to bring Shane Waldron to the Seahawks,” Carroll said in a statement the team released Friday afternoon. “His creative and competitive approach to the game will bring out the best in our players and coaches. Shane also brings great knowledge and insight about our division. His vision for the future, along with the caliber of players in our offense, made him a must-get for us.”
Waldron and Dickerson became their NFL careers as operations assistants under Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots in the early 2000s.
Dickerson is, like Waldron, steeped in McVay’s run-based offense featuring quicker, play-action passes, crossing routes and more use of tight ends in the passing game than the Seahawks have had for quarterback Russell Wilson in years.
“We are fortunate to be able to add Andy Dickerson as our run game coordinator,” Carroll said. “He has worked with Shane for many years and that continuity will be an integral factor in the transition process.”
The hiring of Waldron and Dickerson shows Carroll wants a more Rams-like approach on offense: a shorter, quicker passing game for Wilson based on the run, to give his offensive line that has struggled for years to protect him a fairer fight against more honest-playing defenses. Carroll believes if defenses respect Seattle’s running game and shorter passes more, the Seahawks will get more coverages with single-high safeties with strong safeties near the line of scrimmage.
“We need to run more with focus and direction and count on it a little bit differently than we did,” Carroll said after the Seahawks’ wasted a 12-4 season, their first NFC West title in four years and a home playoff game for a change by losing in the first round of the playoffs to the Rams Jan. 9.
“It isn’t going to be 50 runs a game. We’re not doing that. I don’t want to do that. I want to explode with a throwing game.
“But we need to dictate to the way we’re being played, and better, and see if we can do that.”
Another issue Carroll is addressing by hiring Waldron: tight ends.
All four of Seattle’s tight ends caught just 75 total passes for six touchdowns among Wilson’s 388 completions and team-record 40 TD throws in 2020. Rams tight ends Tyler Higbee and Gerald Everett had 85 catches and six TDs between just the two of them this season in the passing game Waldron coordinated with L.A.
When Waldron was the Rams’ tight ends coach in 2017, Higbee and Everett combined for 539 yards, three touchdowns and averaged 13.1 yards per catch. Everett had a 69-yard reception in his second NFL game that year. That was the second-longest reception by any NFL tight end in 2017.
Waldron moved from Rams tight ends coach to their passing game coordinator under McVay in 2018. That was after Matt LaFleur left to become offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans then head coach of the Green Bay Packers.
That first season with Waldron coordinating L.A.’s passing game, Jared Goff set career highs with 4,688 yards passing, 32 touchdown throws and a passer rating of 101.1 while leading the Rams to the Super Bowl.
New coaches and new ideas at the run-game coordinator and play-caller positions suggests Carroll could be returning in 2021 to more of the play-calling collaboration the Seahawks had from 2011-16. That was with Darrell Bevell as the offensive coordinator and play caller in title, but also with assistant head coach and offensive line coach Tom Cable having huge sway on Seattle’s running schemes and calls.
That worked out OK, including in Seattle’s Super Bowl seasons of 2013 and ‘14. The Seahawks led or were among the league leaders in rushing offense for those years—albeit with bulldozing star Marshawn Lynch and a better, more consistent offensive line than the team has had the last few seasons.
The Seahawks’ offensive linemen should not have to pass block as long as they had to while struggling in 2020 for all of Wilson’s long-developing deep throws—too many in Carroll’s mind. Wilson got sacked 48 times in 16 regular-season games. That was tied for third-most sacks absorbed in the NFL. Seattle went 58-42 in pass-run play-call percentage. That was out of whack with what Carroll wants.
With Bevell and Cable running the offense the Seahawks were 51% pass and 49% run in their 2013 Super Bowl-title season. They returned to the Super Bowl the following season running 54% of the time and throwing it 46%, in 2014.
Schottenheimer began his play-calling tenure for Carroll in Seattle running the ball 56% of the time, higher than in the Seahawks’ Super Bowl years. Seattle led the NFL in rushing that ‘18 season. The team finished 10-6 and lost at Dallas in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
The last two seasons, Schottenheimer relied more on Wilson throwing deep down the field, and went 11-5 and 12-4 in the last two regular seasons. Seattle was 52%-48% pass-rush in 2019, 58%-42% this past season. The Seahawks’ 411 rushing attempts in 2020 were their second-lowest since Carroll’s initial, tear-the-team-down season of 2010. The 2017 Seahawks ran 409 times.
The risk of Carroll’s hiring his fourth offensive play caller in his 11 years leading the Seahawks: Waldron has no experience in the job.
Well, that’s not entirely true. Waldron was the OC for Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, a day school in Cambridge, Mass., in 2011.
Yet it was time for a new philosophy on offense for Carroll.
A Rams philosophy.
Of Wilson’s 27 passes and season-low 11 completions against the Rams in Seattle’s loss in the wild-card playoffs Jan. 9, only three went for completions of 10-19 yards.
That’s the shorter range where Waldron’s passing game—based off the run-game Dickerson helped support and design—has succeeded with Los Angeles the last few seasons.
“They, together with our staff, will work to capture the many strengths we have developed over the years,” Carroll said of Waldron and Dickerson, “and expand the explosive ability that Russell and crew have afforded us.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 2:02 PM.
