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New Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron had his introductory press conference on Tuesday, and I know you’re all wondering just how much detail he’d provide with a mere seven months to go before the next regular season begins.
Spoiler alert: It wasn’t all that interesting. Most of these press conferences are not interesting and it’s why I usually don’t watch them live. But out of curiosity I tuned in to see if Waldron would slip up and say “establish the run” and he did not, so I consider this to be a roaring success.
So as for what he actually did say, Waldron really played it close to the vest and really it is unreasonable to expect him to roll out what the Seahawks offense will actually do when we haven’t even hit free agency yet. Waldron said that “there was so much philosophical alignment” between him and Pete Carroll during the interview process, which is again something I hope is the case given Carroll supposedly had philosophical differences with Brian Schottenheimer.
In Waldron’s case, he pointed to “it’s all about the ball” and limiting turnovers, which is something Jared Goff did not do over the past two seasons, as well as playing fundamentally sound football. He also stressed the need for balance but reiterated that this doesn’t have to mean conservative football. His vision of offense involves making sure that you keep close tabs on even high school football as creativity from there can often elevate to college and then the pros.
On Russell Wilson:
Shane Waldron said he spoke with Russell Wilson during the interview process and has spoken to him since getting hired, mostly to get to know each other as people.
— Joe Fann (@Joe_Fann) February 2, 2021
Waldron said Wilson has an "unrelenting desire to get better."
On how much of Schotty’s offense will be a part of his offense:
Shane Waldron said part of the #Seahawk offense will carry over from previous years, but he has a core set of concepts that he will want to implement as well.
— Joe Fann (@Joe_Fann) February 2, 2021
On how much autonomy he’ll have under Pete Carroll:
Shane Waldron on his conversations with Pete Carroll in regard to how autonomous he'll be as OC:
— Joe Fann (@Joe_Fann) February 2, 2021
"He has my back fully supportive for what I want to do and where we're going to take this thing together. ... It will be through my direction that this offense will be run."
On analytics:
.@MikeDugar asks about Shane's thoughts on analytics. There's a lot I totally failed to transcribe but here's something to interest you:
— Field Gulls (@FieldGulls) February 2, 2021
"I love using the analytics as a starting point and then being able to make smart, sound decisions based on the flow of the football game."
I should add that Waldron did approach the analytics question by talking about how much football has evolved and that he’ll also make decisions based on a mix of the data available and game feel/flow.
Waldron had much praise for Sean McVay during his time with the Los Angeles Rams and noted that McVay gave him opportunities to call plays in preseason and in scrimmages, although this season will be his first time in actual regular season games.
You can listen/watch the whole replay of the live stream below, including the technical difficulties that wiped out about a minute or two of answers.