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The big news concerning the Seattle Seahawks on Tuesday was initially the contract extension for general manager John Schneider, then the bombshell dropped when the team announced that they had parted ways with offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer.
This will be the fourth offensive coordinator of the Pete Carroll era and the third for Russell Wilson. Given Carroll’s recent comments about wanting to run the ball more and more effectively (which has already prompted a lot of groans and gulps among Seahawks fans), I don’t expect a splashy name to be Schotty’s replacement. One name that’s already surfaced is Shane Steichen, formerly of the Los Angeles Chargers.
Mentioned on @NFLTotalAccess just now expect Shane Steichen to be on the #Seahawks' list for offensive coordinator. They wanted to run the football more effectively, just like Anthony Lynn did when he made the move to Steichen for #Chargers OC.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) January 13, 2021
Now keeping in mind that the Chargers offensive line is bad and that Steichen was the OC for Justin Herbert’s wildly successful rookie year... blech.
The Chargers ranked 22nd in EPA/play running the ball and 31st by DVOA. They didn’t have Austin Ekeler for much of the season but if Lynn wanted Steichen to help make the Chargers run it better then it was a gigantic failure. They still were middling in terms of pass-heaviness despite having a clearly superior passing attack.
It’s just one name and there’s not even an interview set up to our knowledge, but expect any other potential candidates to suit what Carroll wants. Ideally it’s not a 2018 redux but a tweaking of the 2019 offense, but we’ll see.