What the Seahawks offense needs to get back to doing after bye week
Nov 2, 2021, 4:36 PM | Updated: 4:37 pm
Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson looks on prior to the snap agains tthe Indianapolis Colts during the first quarter at Lucas Oil Stadium. (Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
(Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
The Seahawks enter the bye week at 3-5 and coming off a much-needed 31-7 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
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When the Seahawks return to action, they’ll be hitting the road to take on the Green Bay Packers in a crucial showdown with a top NFC contender.
When Seattle is back on the field on offense, there’s one thing that former NFL quarterback Jake Heaps and his co-host Stacy Rost want to see more of. They explained what that was on Tuesday’s edition of Jake and Stacy on 710 ESPN Seattle.
Heaps saw a stat that was discouraging from Pro Football Focus, and it was centered around the use of pre-snap motion.
The teams that have used pre-snap motion the most are the 49ers, Jets, Falcons, Chiefs, and Buccaneers.
“The lowest? Eagles, Giants, Cardinals, Steelers and your Seattle Seahawks,” Heaps said.
“Jake, it doesn’t make sense,” Rost said.
The reason it doesn’t make sense is because the Seahawks have a new offensive coordinator in Shane Waldron who comes from a Rams system that has utilized pre-snap motion a great deal over the last few years under Sean McVay. And in the Seahawks’ first game of the year against the Colts, the offense used pre-snap motion a lot.
“The first game, you saw so much pre-snap motion, you saw so much creativity. I mean, it was amazing,” Heaps said. “… It was like man, this is a way different look, a way different feel to this offense. And that was one aspect of it that I was really excited about Shane Waldron (bringing to the Seahawks) offensively. We have not seen that happen enough.”
Heaps thinks that if the Seahawks “let Shane Waldron be himself” as a playcaller, then we will see them use pre-snap motion more going forward, potentially as soon as coming out of the bye.
“You’ve got to let him come in and do what he knows how to do best and what he operates doing at a high level,” Heaps said. “They did it a little bit more this last week, but not as much as I would like to see. I’d like to see that continue to grow and to continue to see them get back to that. I want to see that change. I don’t want to see the Seattle Seahawks as one of the lowest teams in the NFL with pre snap motion rate. It has to be higher.”
“Every single person coming out of the Seahawks during the offseason and training camp about Shane Waldron, offense (were) … tempo and pre-snap motion,” Rost added. “The two things we kept hearing over and over and over and over again. I feel like we haven’t seen an offense that really looks like that, certainly not consistently.”
Heaps described the Seahawks avoiding pre-snap motion for most of the 2021 season as “baffling,” “troubling,” “disturbing” and “frustrating.”
“Hopefully with all that being said, this Jags game is a reflection and opportunity to look back at and say, ‘You know what, yeah, this is more of the team we are. We’ve got to accentuate that we’ve got to be better in those situations. And then secondly, we’ve got to let Shane Waldron be himself. We’ve got to let him do his thing,'” Heaps said.
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