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Brady HendersonESPN
SEATTLE – During his inaugural news conference Tuesday, Seattle Seahawks’ new offensive coordinator, Shane Waldron, sounded a lot like the head coach who just hired him.
He said his offensive approach began with the belief that it’s all about the ball ‘, an expression of Pete Carroll emphasizing the importance of winning the turnover battle. He mentioned several of his cravings for attacking balance, and one about playing complementary football, two more Carroll favorites.
It’s no wonder the Seahawks fired Waldron to replace Brian Schottenheimer, whose clash with Carroll led the team to announce last month that he would not return after three seasons due to ‘philosophical differences’.
“It was, in my opinion, so natural to the interview process, that there was so much philosophical alignment between him and me,” Waldron said. ‘I mentioned it to him: it was not like an interview in which you try to sell yourself to win the job in any form of sales. It was a conversation, and it was a football discussion that had so many things. consistent that it felt just like a natural progression when we got to know each other and talked through things. So, so many of the things were just naturally in line, and this is where I think I felt really good about the process. ‘
As much as Carroll and Waldron found themselves on the same page as they talked over a few days on the phone, FaceTime and Zoom, Carroll did not come to his decision alone. Quarterback Russell Wilson has made it clear he wants to be involved in the hiring process – and he was. A source told ESPN that Waldron was one of the candidates Wilson was most fond of during the two-week search and that the quarterback was excited about the hire.
Jake Heaps, Wilson’s personal quarterback coach and co-host for 710 ESPN Seattle, calls Waldron the ‘perfect mesh’ of what Carroll and Wilson want in their new OC.
“I had the great opportunity to get to know him as a person,” Waldron said of his conversations with Wilson during the interview process and since then. “[We] talked a lot about our families and got to know each other just more than people, because I think the football part of it, it will be an important part of it if the time is right, but our conversations really only focused on who we are as people because you spend many hours in a room with some guys every day when that season is in full swing. … It seems like he has this incessant desire to be better, to be the best he can be, so I think when we started talking about those things, it was some fun conversation. ‘
Waldron’s coaching career included colleagues at Notre Dame and UMass, one year in the UFL and NFL work with the New England Patriots and the Washington Football Team before spending four years with the Los Angeles Rams. He said he took things from every stop to build an offensive philosophy that revolved around three things: protecting the ball, the fundamentals, and the balance.
“I think the biggest part of Russell Wilson within this system is that he has the ability to do a lot of different things, and just because I say it’s a balanced attack does not mean it’s a conservative attack, he said. said. “I never want to get so confused.”
What was not clear from Waldron’s initial comments on Seattle reports was how much of the Seahawks’ offense he is bringing in toward what they have already done.
“I have a core set of beliefs that I’m going to stick to, but we’re going to build this thing together,” he said. “I think the one thing with Russell and with the rest of the players that are on this team has a good foundation and that they have already won a lot of football matches together, and that there are then some of the things that can be transferred. “Absolutely, because there were some wonderful things they did in the past.”
Waldron called Sean McVay a friend and mentor and said the Rams’ head coach made a big contribution to getting him where he came from. Waldron has spent the past three seasons as a Los Angeles Passing Coordinator, saying he has worn various hats in the role, including being responsible for certain situational aspects of games, helping with game planning and working with McVay to be on the headphones. Waldron also holds the title of QB coach in 2019.
One thing he did not do: name plays. McVay handled these duties at the Rams. Waldron hasn’t done that in college or NFL yet, at least not in an actual game.
“It’s a big challenge, and it’s a challenge I’ve been preparing for all my life,” he said. ‘So I think it’s one of the things I can be ready for and excited to attack the opportunity. I learned a ton from Sean. With the play-calling experience, he has given me the opportunity to do it in different settings, whether it is the preseason, or rogue regions or practices. So I had a little bit of a hand in knowing that this was obviously not the right thing to do and that the opportunity would come here.
“I’m a man who likes to prepare. I want to be organized, I want the right consistent approach, and in my mind the preparation started a long time ago and I can not wait for this opportunity to continue and do it.”
Waldron takes one assistant with him from Andy Dickerson in Los Angeles, who will be Seattle’s coordinator for running games. The post was vacant with Brennan Carroll leaving the Seattle staff to be the offensive coordinator at the University of Arizona. Waldron said that when Carroll asked him if he wanted to bring along someone who could help with the transition, his first thought was Dickerson, who had spent nine seasons as the Rams’ assistant attacking coach. He and Waldron were fellow teammates at Tufts University.