How big of a loss would it be if Schottenheimer leaves Seahawks for HC job?

It looks like the Seahawks may be in the market for a new offensive coordinator this offseason.

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According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Seahawks offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer is under consideration for the Houston Texans head coaching position, which will be filled this offseason after the team fired Bill O’Brien earlier this season.

Jed Hughes, hired to assist Houston in its search for a new HC, recently presented Seahawks OC Brian Schottenheimer with a strong recommendation as someone who deserves serious consideration for the Texan’s HC job, per sources. Many believe KC OC Eric Bieniemy a strong candidate.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 13, 2020

Schotteheimer, 47, is in his third year with the Seahawks as offensive coordinator. He is the son of longtime NFL head coach Marty Schottenheimer, who was a head coach from 1984 to 2006 and won 200 games in the regular season during that span.

Before coming to Seattle, the younger Schottenheimer was offensive coordinator for the New York Jets from 2006 to 2011 then held the same position with the St. Louis Rams from 2012 to 2014. After that, he went to the college ranks and was offensive coordinator at Georgia in 2015 before returning to the NFL as the quarterbacks coach for the Indianapolis Colts in 2016 and 2017 before coming to Seattle.

During his three years with the Seahawks, Schottenheimer has guided top-10 scoring offenses, and after ranking 18th in yards per game in 2018, Seattle was eighth last year and is currently sixth in 2020.

Asked about the report during his Thursday press conference, Schottenheimer said it was nice just to be mentioned in those conversations before moving on to Seattle’s next opponent.

“I’d love to be a head coach, those things are flattering,” he said. “But they don’t help you beat a really good Washington Football Team. Honored to be in that consideration, but I’m really doing what I can to play really well against one of the best defenses we’ve played this year.”

His boss, head coach Pete Carroll, said Wednesday that he thinks Schottenheimer would be a great head coach.

“I think he’s an incredible candidate. I think he’s exactly what owners are looking for,” Carroll said. “He’s been around. He’s been in charge. He commands the whole team with his leadership.”

So how big of a loss would it be if Schottenheimer left the Seahawks this offseason? Former NFL receiver Michael Bumpus shared his thoughts Tuesday on 710 ESPN Seattle’s Wyman and Bob.

“If Schottenheimer were to leave, I think it’d be huge, because I feel like this is the most an offensive coordinator has trusted (Seahawks quarterback) Russell Wilson, just with the play calling and allowing him to make decisions, so I think it’d be huge,” Bumpus said.

If Schottenheimer does leave Seattle for a head coaching position, Bumpus wants the offensive coordinator position to be filled in house.

“I hope that if something were to happen to Schottenheimer where he goes off and he’s the head coach somewhere, I hope they’re grooming someone from inside the organization to kind of take over and be like look, you make this offense your own, but let’s not forget what kind of got us here,” he said.

And if “Schotty” is out, Bumpus thinks Wilson will have a big say in who’s calling plays going forward.

“They would have to sit down with Russell and say ‘look. who do you like?’ He’d have to some input in this because at this point, Russell is a franchise quarterback, he’s a Hall of Famer, he has some input on the scheme,” Bumpus said. “So if Schotty were to go, Russell would be on the interview panel.”

Wilson has had great years under Schottenheimer, setting career-highs in touchdowns and passer rating in 2018 and throwing a career-low five interceptions in 2019. Wilson has already set a new personal best for touchdowns in 2019 through 13 games and is completing more passes than ever. Bumpus said Wilson and Schottenheimer have a “close relationship,” which is important due to their roles.

“If you have a Hall of Fame quarterback, they need to be close with the head coach, but they’ve got to be really close with the offensive coordinator … he’s an extension of the coaching staff,” he said. “He is speaking the same language, using the same phrases. He is relaying what these coaches are saying to him in these meetings and getting the offense to kind of buy in to that. So that just kind of shows you how important that relationship is and we’ve seen this relationship between Schottenheimer and Russell kind of evolve.”

Listen to the full discussion at this link or in the player below.

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