Did the right guy leave?

[kearly]

It is hard to separate Bradley and Carroll. All I know is, there are problems with how our defense has been handled. Maybe it's Carroll's fault. Maybe it's Bradley's fault. Carroll isn't going anywhere. He's just way too valuable as a visionary, evaluator, motivator, and developer. With Gus leaving, at least we get a 50/50 shot of replacing the one responsible for those problems. If Bradley was holding us back, this is a great move. If Carroll was the one holding us back, then we held serve.

I wasn't impressed with Bradley in 2009. You might recall that he and Mora implemented arguably the very worst pass defense in the history of our franchise. Carroll has turned crappy coaches into valuable collaborators (Nick Holt). That is a reasonable reason to suspect Bradley (who we are told is the one who made the play calls). Maybe Bradley's not the problem. Maybe he is. Either way, taking a 50/50 chance of fixing that problem with no downside is a good thing if you ask me.

There was almost no upside to moving Bevell. He got better as the year went on, and his style, his flexibility, and his college offense mentality seems like such a great fit for Wilson. Wilson seemed rather emphatic that he wanted Bevell to stay. Maybe you could chalk that up to "what else would he say." But if a friend of mine was up for a big job promotion, and I wanted him to turn it down so that we could stay together, I think at the very least that's a major endorsement of how much I like working with him.

The last thing I'll mention: I thought offensive play calling cost us really just one game this year- the Miami game. But even in that game, the offense hurt us less than the defense did. There were probably 4-5 games Seattle lost this year where defensive philosophy and playcalling played a major role in those losses. So to me, I would have viewed offense in a more positive light than our defense this season, despite our defense finishing #1 in scoring.

 

[scutterhawk]

This could be a debate and I would like to hear what you guys think.

Bradley left, great for him. Bevell stayed, great for us. Or is it? In your opinion, if you were to lose one, which one would you want to leave? We had a great defensive year, but how many games did we lose on last drives or give up the lead late in the game? How many games did our offense not get going, maybe poor play calling or execution and pull out wins on last minute drives? This is really tough, as the only game we lost was SF by 7 pts, credit to who Defense or Offense?

It was a combination of putting up more points than the opponent, (Offense) and protecting the lead (Defense)

I know that sounds oversimplified, but you have to consider that we fielded a Rook QB that did a pretty good job growing his upside, right up and into the playoffs, and he did it better as time went on, in spite of Defenses watching game tape on him.
Defense did a pretty fair job in the beginning, but when other teams saw the mistake of taking Sherman and Browner for granted, they started trying to get the ball downfield without tempting fate.
The Buffalo game was a culmination of Special Teams, Defense, and Offense clicking to perfection, and from that point on in regular Season the whole team was riding a wave.
With Bevel seeing Russell Wilson executing plays like a Vetran QB, he will now be able to draw up some more exotic plays.

I think Quinn will add some new twists to the Defensive sets, and hopefully we nab a Pass Rusher or two in the Draft/FA to expedite his game plans.

 

[HawkFan2009]

You know as far as Bradley is concerned, I've a staunch critic of him because majority of those five losses were on the defense with Arizona, Detroit, Miami, Chicago (even though we won thanks to Russell), and last week Atlanta. The way I saw it on those losses they were just repetitive and just couldn't solve the problem now if those losses were 50/50 (meaning problems in the offensive side) I wouldn't blame Bradley at all but many of those losses just raises alot of red flags! Hopefully next year Dan Quinn can change all that with a more speedier pass rush and better secondary coverages at the end of the game!

 

[MANUNITED23]

Yes. Offense was playing better than defense towards the end

 

[DavidSeven]

Carroll has turned crappy coaches into valuable collaborators (Nick Holt).

This is a pretty striking point, especially since Holt had that same "fiery attitude" that the media has played up for Gus. At the end of the day, Gus hasn't really proven anything outside of Carroll's system; Quinn has (at Florida). Here's hoping Seattle sports has struck gold twice with D-coordinators out of the SEC.