Heaps: Seahawks don’t have the personnel to do what Pete Carroll wants

The Seahawks are 2-5 to start the 2021 season and star quarterback Russell Wilson is still on the mend after injuring his right middle finger in a Week 5 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Simply put, things aren’t going well in Seattle.

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After starting the season 2-2, the Seahawks lost their third game in a row on Monday against the New Orleans Saints, which was the first time since 2011 that Seattle has dropped three consecutive contests.

With Wilson out, not only has the offense struggled, but it’s been relatively ugly, especially against the Saints. And while the defense played well against the Saints, it still ranks 31st in yards per game, 15th in points per game, 27th in passing yards allowed per game and 30th in rushing yards allowed per game.

Former NFL quarterback Jake Heaps said on Thursday’s edition of Jake and Stacy on 710 ESPN Seattle that there is a disconnect between the philosophy that the Seahawks have and  the product that’s being shown on the field.

Where exactly does that disconnect lie? Heaps said it’s in the team’s personnel.

“To be plain and simple … it’s the personnel and what you have versus what you want to do,” he said. “What is your identity? Who do you want to be? And are you fully embracing that? And how do you know you’re fully embracing it? You stick to it. You stick to it, you trust it, you continue to believe in it, you continue to, you know, plant the seed and water it and watch it grow.”

Heaps pointed to head coach Pete Carroll in particular.

“Over the course of this season, in terms of who they are and what they’ve done, what has Pete Carroll said? ‘We just have got to get better. We just got to continue to keep getting better and fix our issues. We believe we have the right scheme, we believe we have the right answers, we’re just not executing,'” Heaps said. “So you point to that, and you are trying to continue to grow that seed and eventually, hopefully you get the results you’re looking for.”

The issue, Heaps said, is that on offense, Carroll and the Seahawks are “not really willing to do that.”

“And I have not seen them willing to do that over the last two years,” he said.

“You just look at what Pete Carroll wants (the Seahawks) to be: a defensive-minded team with a very strong running game that can control the game, that can punish people, that can bring that physical element,” Heaps added. “Right now, you look at the way the roster is constructed, it doesn’t match that at all.”

Heaps said that Carroll has been trying to get the philosophy to change really since last year given how the team started the 2020 season as a pass-heavy offense with Wilson leading the charge.

“That’s why I believe they’re in the position that they’re in, because Pete Carroll was not happy with the identity of which they’ve tried to be starting in 2020, and now in 2021 is trying to fix that and and bring it back to what he knows and what he agrees with,” Heaps said. “Unfortunately you don’t have the personnel right now to execute that at the level that he needs.”

Listen to the second hour of Thursday’s Jake and Stacy at this link or in the player below.

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