I agree, Wilson made Bevell. I feel like Bevell was slow to adjust in both playoff games, trying to stick with his brainiac game plan when in the end the solution was to press the "Easy" button and just hand it to Russell and say do your thing RW. That pisses me off. I also felt like by trying to spare RW from pressure early in the season they ended up putting him in pressure-PACKED situations where 4th quarter heroics was needed, time after time, starting with the very first game of the season. But I get they were trying to bring RW along slowly, I get that they couldn't bring themselves to believe in Russell's godliness quite so early, and I get that it was as much Pete as Bevell.
For those saying this is good because RW likes him, RW only spouts team-first sentiments so how would we know what Russell really thinks? And everyone here KNOWS Russell would be just fine no matter who was calling the plays, as long as when things didn't work out they turned it over to the Russell magic show and let him do his thing.
But if Russ doesn't have to learn a new playbook that's more time he can spend studying opposing defenses or working hard on other aspects, so I do buy the continuity aspect of it. I don't think Bevell is a make-or-break decision for this team, but I like that we kept him. I do have to say I agree with those who say that of all the read-option offenses, Bevell did the best job integrating it in such a fashion as to make it only a small part of a "real" NFL offense, but a part that could be leaned on heavily in crunch time to great effect. That's deserving of some praise. And his playcalling overall did get much better.
If I don't see a heaping helping of Zach Miller, throws to Turbin out of the backfield, targeting Rice more, and in general a more Russell-focused offense from the very beginning next year I'm going to take back all the nice things I said about Bevell though and call for his head.