There seemed to be a problem with the link. Here is the Gregg Bell Article - The News Tribune:
The Seahawks were rolling on offense early this past season. Russell Wilson was a leading candidate for NFL MVP. DK Metcalf was leading the football world in yards receiving.
People wondered aloud what role Pete Carroll had on Seattle’s offense.
If any. Heck, he had even sent his offensive play caller away into his own realm to do his thing, away from the head coach.
At the start of the 2020 season, Carroll had sent Brian Schottenheimer from the sidelines where he’d been calling plays his first two seasons as Seattle’s offensive coordinator upstairs to the coaches’ booth during games. Carroll remembered the benefits he got as San Francisco’s defensive coordinator in 1995-96 from calling games from upstairs.
The new arrangement gave Schottenheimer his own kingdom upstairs. He had play sheets, statistics and monitors all around him. He even joked in September about the luxurious cheesecake he ate in the booth during the Seahawks’ opening game in Atlanta. That was the first, bombs-away, “Let Russ Cook” pass-heavy win in Seattle’s 5-0 start to the season, the best in franchise history.
It looked and felt and sounded like Carroll was hands-off, out of Schottenheimer’s space, literally. And the results were extraordinary for the Seahawks’ offense in September and October.
“He feels he is in great command of what’s going on,” Carroll said then of his offensive coordinator.
“He’s really comfortable with it and obviously it’s working out well. He and Russ are really hitting on all cylinders and so it’s a great start to that transition.”
The 69-year-old head coach is defensive mind. He was a college safety and an NFL defensive backs coach before becoming a defensive coordinator for the Jets and 49ers. There was no wondering where Carroll spent most of his influence: on Seattle’s defense. He always has. And when Schottenheimer’s offense were soaring in September and October, the defense was sinking. So that’s where Carroll was attending.
Then, the Seahawks flipped.
Over the latter half of the 2020 season opponents changed how they defended Wilson, Metcalf and the deep-passing game. Two-high-safety coverages stopped Seattle’s offense. Meanwhile, coordinator Ken Norton Jr.’s defense startlingly U-turned into allowing the fewest points in the league over the final seven games.
That Seahawks’ flip eventually flopped them out of the playoffs in the first round. Despite a 12-4 record, their first NFC West title and home playoff game in four years, they went one and done in the postseason. The fallout was Carroll firing Schottenheimer Jan. 11 after three seasons of him calling Seattle’s plays.
Carroll declared repeatedly the offense needed to “adapt better” to how defenses were playing them. The head man wanted—and for 2021, wants—Seattle to run the ball more.
“We need to run more with focus and direction and count on it a little bit differently than we did,” Carroll said this month..
“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. ...I want to see if we can run the ball more effectively to focus the play of the opponents and see if we can force them to do things like we’d like them to do more — like we have been able to do that in the past.”
CARROLL’S INVOLVEMENT
Carroll was attempting to shape Schottenheimer’s calls back in the spring, months before the 2020 season began. Carroll was forging plans to have Wilson throw the deep ball more often entering this past season.
“I would say, 100%, we’ve talked more about it,” Schottenheimer said in September after Wilson’s startling opener in Atlanta in which he threw all over the Falcons to win, including on a fourth and 5 for a touchdown to Metcalf.
“We started talking about it in the offseason, in terms of: ‘OK, hey, we’ve got a great player in Russ. We’ve got great weapons around him. ...’
“We’ve certainly had way more discussions this year about it.”
By November those plans had swung too far into too much deep passing for Carroll’s ways.
The most infamous example of Carroll getting involved in the offense’s play calls remains the most disastrous play call in Super Bowl history. Carroll saw New England bring in a heavy defensive front to stop Seattle’s run from the 1-yard line in the final seconds. So he instructed then-offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell to substitute a spread formation and throw. Wilson’s pass on a slant intended for Ricardo Lock...
Well, you know the rest.
So much for Carroll being hands-off the offense.
Now after searching and interviewing for three weeks to replace Schottenheimer as his new play caller, Carroll has chosen Shane Waldron as Seattle’s new, first-time offensive coordinator. It’s a key hire, with Wilson heading to his 33rd birthday at what the quarterback this month called a “super-critical” stage of his career.
The perception around the league about Carroll’s role in the Seahawks’ offense has flipped. Just like their season did.
Does Carroll meddle too much in Seattle’s offense to attract the best play caller to steer Wilson for the final three seasons of his record, $140 million Seahawks contract?
It’s a fair question, after experienced former head coaches and play callers choose to take play-calling jobs elsewhere instead of working with Wilson in Seattle.
It’s a question put squarely into play by the decisive moment of the Seahawks’ last game.
‘COACH IS THE BOSS’
In the wild-card playoff game against the Rams Jan. 9, Los Angeles was throttling Wilson, Metcalf and Seattle’s deep-passing game again with two safeties deep. Schottenheimer wasn’t taking advantage of the deep defense with enough shorter, quicker passes and Chris Carson runs. The Seahawks were 0 for their first 8 on third downs, on their way to 2 for 14. Wilson was 7 for 18 passing for just 110 yards in the first three quarters. He had thrown a game-turning interception the Rams returned for a touchdown in the first half.
Early in the fourth quarter while down 23-13 Seattle lined up to go for it on fourth and 1 at midfield. It was after a long injury time out for rookie right guard Damien Lewis. Inexplicably following the extended time out, the Seahawks got out of the huddle with just 5 seconds remaining on the 40-second play clock. Wilson tried to rush the snap before a delay-of-game penalty. Half his offensive line moved, but center Ethan Pocic did not snap the ball. The false-start penalty made it fourth and 6. Carroll then decided to punt.
Seattle never got closer than that to coming back.
Carroll said after the game he “got involved” in Schottenheimer’s play call on that fourth and 1. Carroll eventually got the play he wanted; he won the argument with his play-caller as the head man and franchise’s highest football authority would. But it took all but 5 seconds of the play clock to get it. Carroll overruling his play caller caused the delay and ultimately confusion that led to the pre-snap penalty and Seattle’s essentially game-ending punt.
Those are season-, and job-, ending “philosophical differences,” as the team put it two days later when Carroll fired Schottenheimer.
To be clear: All head coaches get involved in fourth-down decisions, and to some extent his offensive coordinator’s most critical play calls at key moments in games.
And this is not new for Carroll with his coordinators in Seattle. He’s more renowned for being intricately involved in defense. But he’s always, in all 11 of his seasons as the Seahawks’ head coach, put his stamp on the offense’s game plan and preferred players to feature, as well. Usually, it’s been running backs and running the ball.
In November the Seahawks rallied from down 27-7 at Buffalo to within 27-20 early in the fourth quarter. Carroll told Norton to call an eight-man blitz to defending the Bills on a third and 16. Buffalo made a perfect call against it: a quick wide-receiver screen. Five Bills blockers were against two Seahawks.
Wide receiver John Brown ran 33 yards behind that unchallenged wall, to the 2-yard line. Buffalo then scored the touchdown that put it back up two scores. Game over.
“I made, contributed, a call that they hit the screen on,” Carroll said after the 44-34 loss, the most points allowed by one of his Seahawks defenses.
How many times is Carroll involved in Norton’s play calls during games?
“For years. For years I’ve been involved,” Carroll said. “There’s no how many. I don’t know how many. It’s just whenever, you know. It’s an ongoing conversation."
“I’ve been doing that for years."
” Days later, Norton detailed how into the coordinators’ stuff Carroll is—not as a complaint, as a normal course of Seahawks business."
“As far as the game plan goes, it’s a collaboration,” Norton said in November. “We all sit down and watch the film. We talk through all the stats, and watch through everything that we do as far as the game plan. We look through all the games (films), and things like that. The entire staff sits down and talks through all the different things that we think that we can do.
“As far as calling the plays, I’m the initial caller. Coach is the boss."
” A head coach having final say on his coordinators’ calls isn’t novel to Carroll and the Seahawks. But the way the 2020 season went down—way down—for Wilson and the offense while Carroll and Schottenheimer slammed into each other’s “philosophical differences” likely sent warning signs to the league’s coaching fraternity.
WILLING TO YIELD?
Seattle was not the place in 2021 for an established play caller with his own, proven way to run offenses. Such an experienced coach likely would not be as willing to yield to Carroll’s mandate to run more so Wilson can pass more easily in 2021.
That’s why Schottenheimer’s no longer here.
Consider what became of the offensive coordinators Carroll was widely reported to have considered for the Seahawks’ job, although who knows how strongly (leaks about coaching interviews this time of every NFL year are often from agents seeking to drive up at least the perception of interest and leverage of their client between multiple teams):
- Carroll sought this month to replace Schottenheimer with former Eagles Super Bowl-winning head coach Doug Pederson from Ferndale, then also-recently fired head man Anthony Lynn (by the Chargers). Pederson told the Philadelphia Inquirer last week he’s likely to remain out of football in 2021 then reassess his options. Lynn agreed to become the Lions’ offensive coordinator for a new, first-time head coach (Dan Campbell) in Detroit instead for Seattle on Sunday night, according to NFL reporter Josina Anderson.
- Shane Steichen, Lynn’s offensive coordinator for the Chargers the last two seasons, was believed to be another early candidate of Carroll’s for Seattle’s OC job. Steichen agreed this past weekend to be Philadelphia’s new coordinator. Like Lynn, Steichen chose to work with a first-time head coach in fellow ex-Chargers assistant Nick Sirianni, Pederson’s replacement with the Eagles—and not with Super Bowl-winning Carroll in Seattle.
- Joe Lombardi, the Lions’ offensive coordinator in 2014 and half of the ‘15 season and more recently Drew Brees’ quarterbacks coach with the New Orleans Saints, also chose a first-time head coach over Carroll. Lombardi spoke for the first time Tuesday as the new OC for the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers’ new coach, replacing Lynn, is Brandon Staley.
Staley was the Rams’ defensive coordinator in 2020. He became an NFL assistant for the first time only in 2017, as a linebackers coach. He was a coordinator for just one year.
Yet Lombardi chose to run Staley’s instead of Carroll’s offense—the way Carroll wants it run, that is.
What was left for Seattle? A former NFL head coach just fired weeks ago that few saw as a fit. Plus, four candidates from other teams that all have no play-calling experience in the league, and at least one internal candidate from Carroll’s staff.
Carroll reportedly talked to, or wanted to talk to:
- Raiders running backs coach Kirby Wilson, 59. Carroll has hired him twice before: as a running-backs coach for New England and a wide-receivers coach at USC.
- Waldron. At least L.A. coach Sean McVay let him call plays during 2019 preseason games.
- Buffalo quarterbacks coach Ken Dorsey. He’s helped shape Josh Allen into a star in two years as the Bills’ prized quarterback.
- Adam Gase. The Dolphins fired him and the Jets (this month) fired him as their head coach. The Seahawks annihilated Manning’s and Gase’s record-setting offense in Super Bowl 48 at the end of the 2013 season, when Gase was Denver’s coordinator. Gase’ record in the NFL without Manning as his QB — that is, as the 2015 Chicago Bears’ offensive coordinator then leading the Jets and Dolphins: 38 wins, 58 losses. The Seahawks have faced a Gase-led offense and team three times over the last eight seasons. Seattle has won all three of those meetings by a combined score of 95-21. Next...
- Mike Kafka. The quarterbacks coach for Patrick Mahomes and Super Bowl-bound Kansas City would presumably have been a welcomed addition for Russell Wilson. Wilson marvels at Mahomes’ freedom and creativity in the Chiefs’ offense. There’s been one report from CBS Sports that Kafka has decided to remain in K.C. Kafka is considered a coordinator-in-waiting for the Chiefs, when or if play caller Eric Bieniemy leaves Kansas City and gets a head-coaching job. Houston this past week filled the only NFL head job still open, a day before Carroll decided on Waldron. So it appears Bieniemy will be staying with the Chiefs—and Kafka will be staying as Bieniemy’s and Andy Reid’s QBs coach in K.C.
- Dave Canales was Carroll’s wide-receivers coach with the Seahawks for seven years. Then Canales was Wilson’s quarterbacks coach for two. In 2020 Canales got the new title of Seattle’s passing-game coordinator. He’s 39. He’s been with Carroll since 2009, their final year at USC before Carroll brought Canales with him to run the Seahawks in January 2010.
Of all those, Canales would have been be the one who would have no problem with how Carroll wanted to run the ball, the offense, calls on fourth downs, anything on offense.
Which may be what Carroll’s been seeking all along.
As Norton said in November about Carroll’s involvement on at least his coordinator job: “He always has certain things that he wants me to call.”
This story was originally published January 26, 2021 11:11 AM. GREGG BELL Gregg Bell is the Seahawks and NFL writer for The News Tribune. In January 2019 he was named the Washington state sportswriter of the year by the National Sports Media Association. He started covering the NFL in 2002 as the Oakland Raiders beat writer for The Sacramento Bee. The Ohio native began covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season of 2005. In a prior life he graduated from West Point and served as a tactical intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, so he may ask you to drop and give him 10.
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