Huard: How Seahawks are already emphasizing the run game

The Seattle Seahawks’ sputtering rushing attack was a major problem this past season.

With a slew of recent coaching staff additions, they’ve already invested major resources in trying to fix it.

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Most notably, they hired Klint Kubiak to replace previous offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb. Kubiak hails from the Shanahan coaching tree, which places an emphasis on running the football with a wide-zone blocking scheme.

But the Seahawks didn’t stop there. They also have added five new offensive coaches to Kubiak’s staff, including John Benton as offensive line coach, Rick Dennison as their run game coordinator/senior offensive advisor and Justin Outten as their run game specialist/assistant offensive line coach.

Benton, Dennison and Outten bring a combined 57 years of NFL coaching experience, most of which has been centered on the O-line. And those two positions that include “run game” in their title? That’s two more than the Seahawks had on their staff this past season.

During Wednesday’s Blue 88 segment on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk, former NFL quarterback Brock Huard gushed at the clear investment the Seahawks are taking to shore up a rushing attack that ranked 28th in the league this past season.

“Holy smokes,” Huard said. “You want to talk about spending and resources and capital and manpower all to fix a run game? They’re throwing a whole bunch of people at it.”

Benton has spent 19 of his 20 years in the NFL as an O-line coach. Dennison adds another 28 years of NFL coaching experience, including 10 as an offensive coordinator, seven as an O-line coach and two more as an O-line coach/run game coordinator. Outten, a former starting center at Syracuse, has held a variety of roles over his nine years as an NFL coach – including one season as an offensive coordinator, two stints as a tight ends coach and one season as a run game coordinator.

“Put your money where your mouth is,” Huard said approvingly of the Seahawks’ coaching additions. “If you say you wanna have a good run game, then you’re gonna hire an O-line coach, and you’re gonna hire an O-line assistant coach, and then you’re gonna hire a run game specialist and then a run game (coordinator).”

‘They speak the same language’

Something that stands out us there is a strong degree of familiarity among the new hires.

For one, Kubiak had both Dennison and Benton on his staff this past season when he was the New Orleans Saints’ offensive coordinator. But the ties go far deeper.

Dennison spent 19 seasons working under Klint’s father, Gary Kubiak, the latter of whom worked alongside two-time Super Bowl-winning Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan during the rise of the famed Shanahan scheme. More recently, Dennison has spent five seasons working alongside Klint Kubiak.

Benton also worked under Gary Kubiak for eight seasons – including four seasons that overlapped with Dennison. In addition, Benton spent four seasons working under San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, who is Mike Shanahan’s son.

“They all speak the same language,” Huard said. “There’s not gonna be, ‘Hey, let’s spend a month here so you can learn my terminology.’ … These guys all know this book really well. They know this game plan very well. They know the intricacies and the details of it.”

Listen to the full Blue 88 segment at this link or in the audio player near the middle of this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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