Huard: The most ‘refreshing’ thing about Seahawks’ offense this season
Nov 1, 2022, 2:21 PM
Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron of the Seattle Seahawks looks on against the Atlanta Falcons at Lumen Field on September 25, 2022. (Jane Gershovich/Getty Images)
(Jane Gershovich/Getty Images)
If you’ve followed the Seahawks for the last few years, you may have grown frustrated with the offense at times. And for a few reasons.
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Sometimes the tight ends weren’t involved. Sometimes they were too run-heavy. Sometimes the pass plays seemed to only go deep down the field. And sometimes the Seahawks were battling not just opposing defenses, but the play clock.
There were many instances of Seattle’s offense rushing to the line of scrimmage and either just barely getting a play off, and sometimes that unit either took a delay of game penalty or had to burn a valuable timeout. That hasn’t been the case this season.
“How are they getting to the line of scrimmage every single freaking play and never even tempting the play clock?” former NFL quarterback Brock Huard said to Mike Salk during Tuesday’s Brock and Salk on Seattle Sports 710 AM.
And that timeliness in terms of getting plays called and the ball snapped hasn’t come at the expense of the offense’s creativity, either.
“I don’t see this thing so stripped down – that’s one way to do it. Like, ‘OK, we’re gonna strip it down, there’s gonna be no motions, we’re not gonna do personnel groups,’ but they do,” Huard said. “That would be the answer, like yeah, you just strip it down and call base plays and get to the line with 15 seconds (left on the play clock). But that’s not the deal. They’re still doing ‘check with me.’ They’re still getting to three tight ends. They’re still doing motions. They’re still getting into formations.”
“The level that those two are operating at, it’s blowing my mind,” Huard said of Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. “The speed and the tempo – play faster.”
Huard said when he played for the Seahawks and former head coach Mike Holmgren, his coach’s frustration with him was often about getting the offense out of the huddle quicker.
“It was, ‘Hey, come on, get out of the huddle. Faster, faster, faster. I want tempo, I want rhythm. I want you getting to the line and getting the cleats in the ground and the facemasks forward on your linemen and your receivers so everybody can do what they need to do,'” he said. “(Instead of) this constant stress and scramble mode and, ‘Oh my gosh, look at the play clock, are they gonna get the play clock off? Oh my gosh, they’re gonna have to burn the time out.'”
That hasn’t been the case for the Seahawks in 2022.
“There’s like none of it. It is so unbelievably refreshing,” Huard said.
Listen to the full second hour of Tuesday’s Brock and Salk at this link or in the player below.
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