Russell Wilson liberated by larger, freer playbook in Shane Waldron’s new Seahawks system
Russell Wilson’s mock game was real in one, key respect.
The real emphasis Shane Waldron has put in his new Seahawks offense hinges on Wilson expanding his freedom to any play in a larger playbook, at any time.
Including quickly, from the line of scrimmage.
For the opening series of plays against the second-team defense Sunday in front of 15,758 paying fans at Lumen Field, Wilson was calling the plays quickly and at the line. Waldron, his new offensive coordinator, gave him the play from the sideline. Wilson considered it, and the defense he saw. Then the quarterback used what he described as Waldron’s emphasis on giving him freedom to change any play to any other in the playbook more often this season.
The idea is to not stubbornly pound a square peg into the defense’s round holes. That’s what Seattle did the latter half of last season.
Opponents in late 2020 dropped a second safety deep into the center of the field to take away DK Metcalf and Wilson’s long passes that shredded the NFL last September and October. The Seahawks kept trying those long throws, anyway. They had no counter to their later foes’ counter.
That’s why Wilson and the previously soaring offense splatted in December. That’s why the Seahawks lost at home to the Los Angeles Rams in the first round of the playoffs to ruin a 12-4 season and NFC West championship.
And that’s why head man Pete Carroll fired play caller Brian Schottenheimer and hired Waldron, the coordinator of the Rams’ quicker passing game, to be Seattle’s first-time offensive coordinator.
Sunday showed the Seahawks to be quicker in and out of the huddle. Quicker to the line of scrimmage. Quicker by Wilson calling the cadence to snap the ball.
The offense also showed quicker pass routes, with varied targets. Metcalf went deep left. Tyler Lockett went shorter across the middle. Tight end Gerald Everett went deep right.
On a third down and 3 during the offense’s second possession, one of the only times the starters snapped the ball with 10 or fewer seconds on the play clock, Wilson directed running back Alex Collins to the left slot, to be an outside receiver. At the snap, Collins ran up the field two steps. Then he ran across on a shallow drag route just behind the defensive linemen. He looked like Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods or many other Rams receivers.
Waldron’s new offense also showed a return to Carroll’s favored running game. After a 45-yard pass down the sideline to Metcalf on the opening drive, lead back Chris Carson got the ball on two runs in the red zone. The second one was for a 2-yard touchdown.
Ten practices into training camp, five weeks before the opening game at Indianapolis, Wilson likes the changes.
“What we really want to do, obviously, is still take shots,” Wilson said, “and, obviously, to get the ball out quick, too, in terms of play calls...Shane has done a great job with that. ...
“It’s really about getting the ball to our guys fast, quick. ...
“And, you know, I love what we’re doing with up-tempo, you know, something that we’ve been very, very good at over the past nine years.”
Wilson completed seven of his first 10, mostly quicker throws Sunday. That included the 45-yard strike down the left sideline on a 2020-esque go route by Metcalf. He got away with pushing off reserve cornerback Gavin Heslop to make the catch. The offense scored Carson’s touchdown then a field goal, by Jason Myers of 25 yards.
Efficient. Effective. And fast.
Then again, if the Colts in the opener on Sept. 12 have a defense like Seattle’s second unit, what do Waldron, Wilson and the Seahawks have to worry about?
“I think we are ready to roll,” Wilson said.
“I mean, I wish we could play tomorrow.”
Fast. But not so fast, of course.
Three preseason games come first, beginning Saturday at Las Vegas. Carroll hasn’t said how he’s going to play veterans given one fewer exhibition game this year, the trade-off with players to the NFL adding a 17th game to the regular season. Usually Carroll has Wilson and veterans play for just a series or two in the first preseason game. They may play longer Saturday against the Raiders, particularly on offense, to continue what Carroll liked most from Sunday’s mock game.
“I liked the rhythm that we played with,” Carroll said. “I thought it was really obvious that we moved with rhythm and adjusted it as we went. That takes all of the work that has been done by Shane and the offensive coaches and players.
“In particular, Shane and Russ, both of them felt really good about what we were able to do today. We did a lot of stuff. We didn’t just play it vanilla.”
This year’s spiced-up Seahawks have a target of when on the 40-second clock between plays they want to snap the ball. That number is not in the teens.
Generally, it is going to be faster than it’s been the last couple seasons. Recently Seattle’s been among the league’s slower teams between plays.
“We are moving quicker, more consistently, we hope,” Carroll said. “We will see how we go, but we worked really hard to develop our sense of tempo. So we can change it as we want to.”
There’s more to do this month, not with installing plays but with perfecting the pace and tempo of how Waldron wants them run.
“We have everything available to us that we need to play games. Now it’s tweaking stuff as we go,” Carroll said.
“There’s still stuff. But right now we’re not in the mode of trying to add more. That’s not it. We’re trying to get really good at what we’re doing. I was really fired up today. You can’t tell, but the expanse of things that our guys utilized in the last two days...we did a lot of really good situation work. It’s called for the installation to be complete.
“At this point, in my mind, we can go. We’ll be tweaking as we go.”
Not that Schottenheimer limited him, he wants you to know, but Wilson feels liberated by a playbook that he says is bigger and allows him to play freer.
He feels more in command. He feels more able to attack the defense rather than reacting to it.
“(I) feel like, ready to win,” the only Super Bowl-winning QB in Seahawks history said.
“That’s my job.”
This story was originally published August 8, 2021 at 5:44 PM.
