Heaps: Why Shane Waldron is ‘perfect mesh’ for Seahawks’ Carroll, Wilson

While the hire isn’t yet official, the Seahawks are reportedly set to make Rams passing game coordinator Shane Waldron the team’s next offensive coordinator.

Gallant’s questions about reported new OC Shane Waldron

Waldron, 41, has been with the Rams since 2017, starting as tight ends coach before being promoted to passing game coordinator in 2018. He also was quarterbacks coach for the 2019 season.

Former NFL quarterback Jake Heaps of 710 ESPN Seattle’s Jake and Stacy said earlier this week that Waldron was his pick for the job, so naturally he was excited when ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Waldron is coming to Seattle.

Heaps said Wednesday that he texted with a friend of his who is on the Rams’ coaching staff after Schefter’s report, and that person had nothing but good things to say about Waldron.

“Immediately after the announcement I received a text from that friend on their staff just saying ‘This is a bigger loss for us than people realize. Shane is a great match for Russell Wilson,'” Heaps said. “If that doesn’t get you fired up, I don’t know what does.”

Waldron has worked under Rams head coach Sean McVay since 2017, and the two coached together in Washington in 2016. McVay has been seen as one of the NFL’s brightest offensive minds for a while now, and his offensive assistants have been hired across the league for offensive coordinator and head coaching jobs, such as Packers head coach Matt LaFleur and Bengals head coach Zac Taylor.

Per Heaps’ source, Waldron played a key role in the Rams’ offense in recent years while working alongside McVay.

“He went on further to say Waldron was Sean McVay’s right-hand guy and was the key member of that offensive staff when it came time to game plan each week,” Heaps said. “So when it comes to that, it gets me fired up. I was already a big fan of Shane Waldron, I thought he would be a really nice fit for this offense in terms of what they’re looking for.”

Most importantly, Heaps said, if Waldron is indeed hired like Schefter has reported, he thinks Waldron will give the Seahawks exactly what they need when it comes to the two most important members of the team.

“I believe this is the perfect mesh for what Pete Carroll wants and what Russell Wilson wanted as well through this process,” he said.

After the Seahawks’ season ended with a playoff loss to the Rams, Carroll told reporters he wanted to run the ball more so the offense could have more balance and stop teams from playing with two-high safeties, which limited Seattle’s deep passing game over the last half of 2020. Wilson, meanwhile, told reporters he wanted the offense to play with more tempo and urgency so they could get off to faster and better starts.

After opening the season scoring 30-plus points in seven of the Seahawks’ first eight games, the offense slowed down dramatically and big plays were harder to come by. Heaps thinks Waldron can give Carroll and Wilson what they each want while leading an overall elite offense.

“Shane Waldron comes from an offense that values the running game. That’s where it starts,” Heaps said. “And when (the Rams’) offense is at its most explosive, in their system, which Shane Waldron is going to come with, it is when the running game is at its best.  And when the run game is going and it’s cooking and it’s rolling, now this offense becomes dangerous with the play-action passes, with the screen game. It opens everything else up and they’re able to play in attack mode and play with a tempo that puts defenses on their heels, and that’s exactly the type of style that Russell Wilson wants to play with.”

You can hear Heaps’ full discussion with co-host Stacy Rost in the podcast at this link or in the player below.

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