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Sports

Report: Seahawks hire from within NFC West, land Rams’ Shane Waldron as offensive coordinator

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To quote the late Jimi Jamison from the rock group Survivor, the search is over.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter dropped a Friday news dump on a Tuesday evening, and it has to do with the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordinator position. After a couple of weeks of speculation, excitement, dread, indifference, and that worrying moment when Adam Gase’s name appeared, the Seahawks are reportedly hiring Los Angeles Rams passing game coordinator Shane Waldron to replace Brian Schottenheimer.

Waldron has been with Sean McVay since their days in Washington back in 2016. When McVay was hired by the Rams, Waldron was initially Los Angeles’ tight ends coach before assuming the role of the passing game coordinator in 2018. He also had the title of quarterbacks coach in 2019 before focusing just on the passing game again in 2020. Previously he was an intern with the New England Patriots and worked under Bill Belichick as an offensive quality control coach and then later the tight ends coach in 2009.

The 41-year-old native of Portland, Oregon has never called plays in the NFL, but I assume as offensive coordinator he was calling plays at the prestigious K-12 Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Massachusetts back in 2011.

We know that while the Los Angeles Rams have been a pass-heavy team on early downs in neutral game script situations under Sean McVay, they are big on play-action and they have led the league in play-action attempts over the past two seasons. Rather curiously, the Seahawks only had 9 more play-action passes in 2020 than in 2019 despite increasing Russell Wilson’s pass attempts by 42.

The play-action rate is one thing, but the creativity of the play-action concepts and moving Jared Goff out of the pocket is a different story and the Rams have consistently made that a staple of their offense throughout the McVay era.

And so in steps Mr. Waldron as the Seahawks’ fourth OC in the Pete Carroll era. Congratulations to him and hopefully this is a great hire.

Poll

How do you like the Shane Waldron hire?

  • 33%

    Love it

    (190 votes)

  • 3%

    Hate it

    (20 votes)

  • 62%

    Too early to tell! The dude just got hired today!

    (354 votes)



564 votes total

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Sports

Rams agree to terms with Raheem Morris to be team’s new defensive coordinator

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THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The Los Angeles Rams announced they have agreed to terms with Raheem Morris to be their new defensive coordinator. Morris replaces Brandon Staley, who was named the Chargers’ new head coach last Sunday.

Morris, 44, brings 19 years of NFL coaching experience on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball to the Rams. He most recently served as interim head coach of the Atlanta Falcons for their final 11 games of the 2020 season after spending the first five as their defensive coordinator. The 2020 season was Morris’ sixth with Atlanta and first as its defensive coordinator.

In 2019, Morris began the season on the offensive side of the ball coaching wide receivers before taking over as the Falcons’ secondary coach. Following that midseason switch, he helped Atlanta finish 6-2 over the final eight games, and its defense went from having the fewest takeaways in the first half of the season (4) to finishing with the second-most in the NFL (16) after Week 9. The Falcons’ defense also improved from 32nd to 10th in sacks, 32nd to ninth in scoring efficiency, and 31st to sixth in redzone efficiency over the final eight weeks of the season.

Morris first joined the Falcons in 2015 as assistant head coach/defensive passing game coordinator. During that first season in Atlanta, Morris helped the Falcons defense allow the third-fewest total passing touchdowns in the NFL that season (19). He then transitioned over to the offensive side of the ball and served as assistant head coach/wide receivers coach for the next three and a half seasons.

Prior to joining the Falcons in 2015, Morris spent the 2012-14 seasons on the Washington Football Team’s coaching staff as its defensive backs coach. Washington’s defense finished tied for fifth in the NFL in takeaways with 31 in his first season. It also tied a league-high with 94 passes defensed and ranked fifth in the NFC with a 3.3 interception rate.

Before arriving in Washington, Morris spent three seasons as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2009-11). He was the youngest head coach in the NFL in 2009. In 2010, Tampa Bay finished 10-6, marking the best turnaround in franchise history after going 3-13 the previous season.

Morris began his NFL coaching career as a defensive quality control coach for the Buccaneers in 2002, becoming a defensive assistant in 2003 before being promoted to assistant defensive backs coach (2004-05). After one season as Kansas State University’s defensive coordinator (2006), he returned to Tampa Bay for the beginning of his second stint with the Bucs, starting out as their defensive backs coach (2007-08) before becoming their head coach. During that two-year span, Tampa Bay allowed the second-fewest passing yards per game in the NFL (170.5) and also ranked among the league leaders with 22 interceptions.

Morris is well-acquainted with Rams head coach Sean McVay, having previously worked together with Washington and the Buccaneers for a combined four seasons. Morris’ second and final season as the Bucs defensive backs coach was the same year McVay was an offensive assistant for Tampa Bay (2008). The two also worked together for three seasons with the Washington Football Team from 2012-14 – McVay was in his second and third seasons coaching Washington’s tight ends (2012 and 2013) and first as its offensive coordinator (2014) while Morris was Washington’s defensive backs coach for each of those three seasons.

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