Huard’s insight on where Jody Allen stands on direction of Seahawks

While the Seahawks came out of the weekend with their first win since October, the reality is that the team has struggled more this season than any since quarterback Russell Wilson’s arrival in 2012.

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That has raised a lot of questions, one of which made headlines on a national scale in recent days – where does Jody Allen stand on the state of the team?

Allen is the chair of the Seahawks and trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust, which assumed ownership of the team after her brother and previous team owner Paul Allen died in 2018, and she’s largely stayed out of the spotlight since moving into her current role. But with a down season for the Seahawks, who are 4-8, there has been speculation on what measures she may take due to the direction the team has gone in 2021.

Over the weekend, Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network shared a report on Allen, stating that she’s “very involved” with the Seahawks and “not happy” about the season, which is just one loss away from being guaranteed to be their first losing season since 2011.

“She’s not looking at this like it’s a one year thing – ‘We’ve been successful for a decade.’ I’d imagine there could be some changes in some form or fashion, but we’ll see what happens once we get to the offseason,” Garafolo said.

Brock Huard, a FOX Sports college football analyst and former Seahawks quarterback who has covered the Seahawks with 710 ESPN Seattle since 2009, provided his own insight Monday during his daily segment on The Mike Salk Show.

“Consistent with some of the messaging I’ve been hearing in reaching out to people,” Huard said after listening to the clip of Garafolo’s report.

Huard compared what was known about how Paul Allen ran the Seahawks to what he’s heard about Jody Allen’s approach, and it sounds pretty similar.

“It was not as if Paul was the most hands-on owner. He certainly let people do their job,” he said. “But we got enough snippets over the years from the game reports that (Seahawks general manager) John Schneider had to write after every game that Paul would review, to some of the people brought in and consultants brought in to make sure that everybody – I don’t know if the word accountable is correct, but at least challenged schematically, intellectually, leadership-wise. Paul was involved in that way.

“So I did a little digging, and (Garafolo’s report) is consistent with the messaging that I have heard. Jody, she loves the Pacific Northwest. She loves this place. … From what I understand, she is there. She’s obviously at the games, she is invested, she wants to see this team carry on (Paul Allen’s) legacy and everything that he built with it, and she is engaged and involved.”

Huard said it’s anybody’s guess what changes, if any, Allen may make after the season, however.

“What that looks like in the next step, nobody knows. … You can prognosticate all you want, but I think the important thing for Seahawk fans to know is it’s not as if there is nobody at the wheel. She is invested and engaged and wants to see this thing done right.”

That elicited a response from Mike Salk about coach Pete Carroll and the Seahawks after Sunday’s 30-23 win over the San Francisco 49ers.

“Well, I tell you what, if she’s thinking about the coaches… you don’t fire leaders unless A, you think you’ve got specifically a better one out there, or B, they’ve lost their locker room and lost the ability to lead,” Salk said. “You can’t watch that game and tell me Pete Carroll’s lost anything.”

Responded Huard: “No. Those guys played with significant juice.”

You can hear the full conversation between Huard and Salk in the podcast at this link or in the player below.

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