The Seahawks gave new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron high marks throughout the offseason program for the club’s incoming playbook for 2021.
Part of the excitement for what Waldron is implementing stems from how balanced the scheme is expected to be. Even with a quarterback like Russell Wilson, the Seahawks have been at their best under head coach Pete Carroll when they’ve had a strong run game. That is one element that should improve in the upcoming season.
But according to receiver Tyler Lockett, the receivers will factor into offensive balance when it comes to the types of routes they run.
“The explosive part of it’s not going to change, it’s just the fact that we’re going to learn how to be a lot more balanced, to where whatever teams decide to give us, that’s what we’re going to take,” Lockett said, via John Boyle of the team’s website. “If teams decide to play as deep, then we’re going to take everything short, and we’re going to be able to run our offense all the way down the field and control the clock. If teams try to take the short stuff away, we going to go deep.
“So at the end of the day, we’re just learning how to be able to build our offense up as a whole to where we don’t have to depend on one thing, but we can be able to depend on different types of phases of our offense. So whatever people give us, we’re just going to take. And we’re not going to be greedy, we’re not going to go out there force things to happen, we’re just going to naturally let the game come to us.”
Though the Seahawks won the NFC West and finished No. 8 in scoring last season, they were just 17th in total yards. And after averaging 34.3 points per game in their first eight games, Seattle averaged 23.1 points per game over their last eight before falling to the Rams in the Wild Card round.
Seattle should continue to be a factor in the strong NFC West. But having that offensive balance could propel the club to a deeper playoff run in 2021.