The Seahawks are a mess, but how does it get cleaned up?

Plenty of debate over who deserves the blame

Matt Baide | Dec 02, 20210

It’s the end of November, and for the decade before this, it usually meant fans of the Seattle Seahawks watching the team jockey for playoff position and getting ready for a postseason game.

But this year, fans have seen a much different product on the field. Seattle is 3-8 and even with a Washington Football Team in the seventh and final playoff spot at 5-6, the playoff chances for Seattle are slim, especially after a 17-15 loss to the Football Team.

As a lifelong Seahawks fan, this season has been a shock considering the consistently good teams with general manager John Schneider, coach Pete Carroll, quarterback Russell Wilson and middle linebacker Bobby Wagner. With this group, the Seahawks have missed the playoffs one time with a 9-7 record, and it was the only season the team didn’t record double digit wins.

But as a lifelong Seahawks fan, I remember the bad. I am grateful for the decade of success the Seahawks were able to accomplish during the 2010’s, including the franchise’s first Super Bowl in 2013.

So where do the Seahawks go from here? As I said on my sports podcast, Washington East to West Sports (non-shameless plug on YouTube), I can see the Seahawks doing one of two things. The first option is to call this season a one-off, try to improve at some positions during the offseason including offensive line, defensive line and cornerback, and bring most of the team back from a team that was 12-4 and won the NFC West in 2020.

I think this is a legitimate option because of the fact that this season is an outlier in the Schneider/Carroll/Wilson/Wagner era, but much like every offseason, there are areas of improvement that need to be addressed to get the team back to the playoffs next season.

I don’t see this as likely to happen, which brings me to option two, which is a complete teardown and rebuild of the team.

There is a certain segment of Seahawks fans that appear to believe that firing Pete Carroll and John Schneider will solve the problems this team has, citing Pete Carroll as the biggest reason the team is failing this season. While that may be true, if you’ve watched games this season, it’s clear that it is more than a coaching issue, as the lack of execution is an enormous reason this team is where it is. There have been many times this season where the Seahawks have had a chance to win the eight games they’ve lost, only to find a way to lose, whether it’s the defense not holding or Wilson not having the same end of game magic he usually conjures. The Seahawks have a point differential of -17 and the average margin in those losses is 7.5 points, meaning the Seahawks are competitive in most of their losses.

Wilson is the greatest player in Seahawks history, in my opinion, and I appreciate everything he has done for the organization, city and state. I would love to keep him, but I believe, that if the team went with option two, got rid of the coaching staff and brought in a whole new staff, will that really change the outcome of next season? I don’t think so. I think if the team goes with option two, they need to really lean in and go for it, and that would mean trading Wilson for draft assets, and if you want, a young recently drafted quarterback. The team that immediately comes to mind is the Chicago Bears, one of the teams Wilson cited as where he would like to be traded last offseason, and the Seahawks could probably get Justin Fields in return.

To be clear, I’m fine with choosing either option, and if you’re asking me to pick one, I would go with option two. The route the Seahawks went last year with only having three draft picks (Tre Brown played well until he was injured, but nothing outside of that) and signing a few guys to boost the team didn’t work, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work. I think Wilson wants to leave based on his position last offseason, and so trading him and getting something in return for him before he inevitably leaves is the right move. There is debate among Seahawks fans between Carroll and Wilson and who deserves credit and blame throughout the last decade, and we may soon find out who is right.