That's odd, in 2015 Seahawks had 4th best offense in the NFL. That was the first time they actually let Russ cook.
2010 - ranked 23rd
2011- ranked 23rd
2012- ranked 9th (Wilson rookie year)
2013- ranked 8th
2014- ranked 10th
2015- ranked 4th (Lynch barely played)
2016- ranked 18th(Wilson was banged up that year w/ his ankle and his pectoral
2017- ranked 13th (Wilson had like 95% of the offense points, led in rushing too.
2018- ranked 6th Let Russ cook
2019- ranked 9th Let Russ cook
2020- ranked 8th Let Rus cook
Looking at the stats, having a top 10 offense in pretty much every season he played seem like your nitpicking.
It's not nitpicking. Russ"s early years, we played RG3 ball. He was a dual threat AND we had arguably the best back in the league toting the rock behind him. Add to that a deep ball threat and you have the offense that Pete's been wanting for the last few years.
In 2015, Lynch was banged up, but we were 3rd in the league in rushing, 13th in passing. And near the top in 3rd down conversions.
In fact, when the offense was run based we have been statistically better on 3rd down conversion than in any year Russ was allowed to cook.
It's accurate to say we haven't had deep playoff success since the early years when we had a running game that bolstered our offensive success, and one that Russ contributed to and in doing so, helped us move the chains. When he stopped and the offense landed on his arm, post 2016, we've landed in the bottom half of the league in 3rd down conversions. But Still great in stats.
Case in point. Everyone harps on how Russ was cooking in 2021 prior to his injury. Statistically speaking, he was great. The offense was dangerous. AND, it couldn't sustain drives and routinely failed to hold the ball when defenses would adjust. Both things are true. Had Pete continued to let Russ cook in 2020, the offense likely would have still put up yards on big plays. AND, it would also have likely suffered the same fate sustaining drives that it began to show that year and that plagued it in 2021.
Early in the transition to the offense leaning more on Russ, Pete continued to push the rush game because he saw the blindspot in thr passing game. The reaction was that Pete was killing the offense. 2020. Pete let Russ and Schotty go, until over three games and starting with the Cards loss in OT, Russ exhibited an inability to make sound decisions with the ball, whether reading the defense or NOT taking completely unnecessary risks and turning it over. He forced a strategy that allowed the run to get defenses to shift their strategy because the passing game couldn't.
And in 2021, he was even more hands off and didn't change a thing until week 14 or 15 and fumed as Russ just did what he's always wanted to - play big play, big stat ball - because that's his game. He's said it himself, so to claim its not true is to disagree with the man directly on the point.
But the fact remains, our passing game had never been great at sustaining drives without a running game to make it go. The stats look great, but the offensive stats are also bouyied by the run game, which was more dynamic when Russ helped it. But if you set the offenses stats next to 3rd down stats ( and especially passing 3rd down stats) the argument that Russ is this piece we can't win without because he did so much just doesn't hold water.
Truth is we don't know what the offense would have been with another competent qb at the helm during our peak years. But we can get an unbiased objective read when you look at the complete picture ALL of the stats show.
