What are the pros and cons of Seahawks using a more up-tempo offense?

With news from NFL Network’s Omar Ruiz that the Seahawks could implement more “hurry-up” or up-tempo offense in 2020, some are excited by the prospect while some have their concerns.

Related: Could we see a more fast-paced Seahawks offense in 2020?

Quarterback Russell Wilson seems to thrive in that style of offense, as evidenced by his prowess late in close games, and Ruiz says the Seahawks are promoting 2019 quarterbacks coach David Canales to passing game coordinator and former Seahawks backup quarterback Austin Davis to quarterbacks coach to help explore whether that kind of offense can work for them earlier in games.

710 ESPN Seattle’s Bob, Dave and Moore were intrigued by that news, and shared their thoughts on whether or not that could be a good move for the Seahawks going forward.

Is that potential change good for the team?

Bob Stelton: “That’s music to my ears. We’ve talked about the idea of changing the offense and there’s those out there that want to see Russell throw the ball 30 to 35 times a game. I don’t want to see that – 25 is fine with me … But I would like to see the tempo change and we’ve talked about the fact that part of their philosophy has been to just drain the clock, let the play clock go down into those red numbers every play and often, you’re on the edge of your seat like ‘snap the ball! Snap the ball!’ They just take it down that far and I’m sure that has its pluses and minuses, but we’ve seen how well Russell in particular plays, how much of a rhythm they seem to find in those moments. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to explore implementing that in other parts of the game.”

Dave Wyman: “I would say the downside for it as a coach is that you want to get your guys in the best possible mismatch and situation. And then you want to check into the right play … That’s kind of what you want to do and that’s what gets taken away with the up-tempo offense. Here’s the other thing … It’s kind of like the guy who got the ball four times and averaged 10 yards (per play) … and you go after the game, ‘Well, they should have given him the ball more often.’ It works in certain situations, but it can also be a hurry-up and three-and-out. If you’re going up-tempo and you get an incomplete pass or two, then you (could) go back and look at the film and say ‘we should have checked into this or we should have checked into that’ or ‘we could have had more time to figure out what they’re doing defensively’ because you couldn’t do those things because now you’re going up-tempo.

“It’s good and Russ. I don’t know exactly what the numbers are, but he does seem to thrive in that situation. I mean, (he has) 32 fourth quarter and overtime comeback wins, so obviously he thrives when there’s more pressure. But there’s also some bad parts of that too, so I don’t think that’s the answer, but if they increased it a little bit, that, to me, would not be a bad thing, certainly.”

Jim Moore: “We’ll see how it works out, but we’ve never seen them have a passing game coordinator. It’s always been an offensive coordinator and I thought (Seahawks offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer) was running the whole show and you’ve got a quarterbacks coach, usually. Now with Canales being the passing game coordinator and Austin Davis being the quarterbacks coach, Omar Ruiz is pointing out that something is in the works there, so yeah, Bob, I can see why you’re excited about it and maybe they will go a little more up-tempo, but I’m with Dave on this one. I hope they pick their spots and don’t go up-tempo too much … because you bring in other variables that you haven’t had in the run-first offense and then that’s having the defense on the field more often, having Russell Wilson be more susceptible (to injuries) as he ages.”

Listen to the full discussion at this link or in the player below.

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