Seahawks 2021 season wrap-up: Fans overwhelmingly vote to "run it back" with Pete, John, & Russ
And Over 80 things YOU SAID about what the Seahawks need to do to improve for 2022
The last thing that I expected to be writing a week after the season ended was that the Seattle Seahawks have no announcements. Even in the realm of “What will happen with Russell Wilson?” the only logical answer appears to be: Nothing, get him some offensive line help.
It was on January 23rd of last year that it was reported that the Detroit Lions and Matthew Stafford had agreed to “part ways” but the only reason for the delay was that the Lions had to get their general manager and head coach positions filled first. The Seahawks have a head coach and a general manager, the same two people who have been in those roles for the last 12 years, and the best quarterback available to them by 101 yards is the person who has been in Seattle for the past 10.
Had the Seahawks season ended with those three straight losses at the hands of the Packers, Cardinals, and Washington Football Team, perhaps the big three would not be returning to the big Sea. The truth is that the 17th game did not help Pete and John because the actual 17th game was the 23-20 OT loss to the Steelers, but certainly it was Week 17 and Week 18 that settled down the fanbase in the waning moments of the season.
The Seahawks ended up 7-10 but as you’ll see in the many fan responses to my survey, many of those were “close” and the differences between the 12-4 Seahawks of a year prior and this Seattle football team were much smaller than they appear in the rear view mirror.
That may even be true but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the Seahawks should be striving for status quo. Seattle flopped against Jared Goff at home in the wild card round in 2020, defeated Josh McCown in the 2019 wild card before a predictable (albeit surprisingly close) L to the Packers in the divisional round, and were not nearly as close to winning their wild card game in Dallas in 2018 as the 24-22 score indicates.
Coupled with missing the playoffs altogether in 2017, that means that the Seahawks have a single postseason victory in the last four years and it came against a quarterback who had thrown five pass attempts during the regular season.
Stretch back two more years, to 2015, and Seattle’s playoff resume now includes wins over Matthew Stafford and Teddy Bridgewater (by a you-know-what), but losses to Cam Newton and Matt Ryan.
Consider that from 2013-2014, the Seahawks defeated Drew Brees, Colin Kaepernick, Peyton Manning, Newton, and Aaron Rodgers, while only narrowly losing in the Super Bowl to the Super Bowl King. In the eight years since then, the Seahawks have only gotten the best of Stafford, Bridgewater, and McCown.
So even if Seattle maybe could be 11-6 right now and in the playoffs, losing games to Ben Roethlisberger, Jameis Winston, Taylor Heinicke, and Nick Foles is surely disappointing for a team that purportedly has Super Bowl aspirations regardless of how close the Seahawks were to victories in any or all of those contests. If you beat the Bears by two points, surely that equates to about a 17-point loss to Aaron Rodgers.
To look at Seattle’s season and think, “But it’s not that much worse than last season” is sort of like justifying season three of True Detective by comparing it to season two of True Detective, when we all know that there is only one season of True Detective worth watching.
I’m not saying that the Seahawks shouldn’t run it back with the big three, nor am I comparing any of them to Stephen Dorff, what I am saying is that I’m not as interested in talking about Seattle’s minor successes at the end of a lost season as I am in examining how the franchise can possibly go back to what they were nearly A DECADE AGO without making some notable changes that go well beyond firing an assistant or two.
And they haven’t even done that.
I polled Seattle Seahawks fans at the end of the season and asked “What would you like to see happen with the big three?” and the answer was overwhelming: Run. It. Back.
Nearly 62-percent of the 244 votes were in favor of keeping Pete, John, and Russ. The second-most popular answer was 14-percent to just fire Pete Carroll and find a new head coach, but this would also entail finding a new final word on personnel decisions, which would have presumably gone to John Schneider.
Number three was to fire Pete and John, which would entail rebooting the organization entirely, although it is just hard to imagine one without the other unless it is the 50-year-old GM staying and the 70-year-old coach riding off into the rainstorm. Only 7-percent of the vote wanted the blame to fall on John, likely because of Seattle’s lack of draft classes that are in any way comparable to the 2010-2012 groups, and because of the Seahawks’ penchant for acquiring star players at the cost of first round picks—then seemingly having no idea how to utilize them.
But again, this would seem to be more on Pete than it would be on John.
Only the fifth-most popular answer involved trading away Russell Wilson.
Because I knew that I would want clarity on the answers, and that many of the fans would want to express a caveat or explanation for their votes, I also included a section for “Anything you’d like to add?”
Here now, for the first time in world HISTORY, are those answers. Most of them say to fire Ken Norton, Jr.
Kenneth: Most people would like to see Ken Norton, Jr. fired, but as noted on this week’s podcast, it’s hard to see how Pete would make a replacement hire that isn’t going to be expected to follow the same orders as KNJ. The Seahawks would need to hit rock bottom before many of Seattle’s fans are willing to blame Pete or Russ for their lack of success in high-pressure situations (playoffs, playoff positioning games against elite teams).
Kenneth: Russ seems to have the most power remaining when it comes to who the fans will side with and sure enough, he is the best quarterback in franchise history. It’s also difficult because history will always show that he had “good stats” in 2021 and we’ll mostly forget that he didn’t play well for at least half of the year. Until Russ completely erodes, and that may not happen for quite some time, fans don’t want to risk another “Charlie Whitehurst dark age.”
Kenneth: I didn’t mention a defensive coordinator for the same reasons I didn’t mention the offensive coordinator. I didn’t want the poll to be any longer than it had to be, or any more complicated. An assistant coach cannot be compared to a head coach, general manager, or starting quarterback. Fans point to assistant coaches as “the reason for the problems” because they hate to blame the head coach, GM, or QB. Ken Norton didn’t hire himself, Ken Norton didn’t draft or sign the team’s defensive players, and if we really wanna get juicy about it, the defense wasn’t as bad as the offense.
Kenneth: If the Seahawks go 13-4 next season and get bounced in the playoffs by Rodgers, Brady, Dak, Stafford, Kyler, Trey Lance, or really anyone, I don’t see the point of a victory lap. Seattle needs to reach the NFC Championship and they need to do no less than put up a contentious fight until the end. No more sputtering and proving to be the fifth-best team in the conference. All that will do is encourage another “Run it back” season that ends as the fifth-best team in the conference.
Kenneth: I may sound “negative” here but I agree that it would be difficult for Seattle to “do better” than the big-three. At least, right now. The choice comes down to “run it back” or “start it over” and then the Seahawks must decide what year is the best for them to be okay with sucking. Clearly when you watch Russ throwing touchdowns to DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, with Rashaad Penny rushing for 200 yards, it’s hard for any Seattle fan to think, “Time to blow this shit up.” That’s completely understandable. Hopefully people also see why it is logical to conclude that the Seahawks were never a team—not in Week 1 or Week 18—that was suited to compete with the NFL’s top five or six teams right now. What must they do to get back to that point without blowing it up and starting over? The Seahawks must treat 2021 like they did 2011, the last time they made dramatic leaps of improvement.
Kenneth: It’ll be interesting to see if Shane Waldron has a second-year impact similar to what Kyle Shanahan had with the Atlanta Falcons in 2016.
Kenneth: I think the Seahawks will do what is necessary to re-sign Rashaad Penny. But even in 2021 did Penny get hurt and miss significant time. Seattle must make another bold move at the running back position, in addition to giving Penny what he wants.
I like that ending. Fitting words for the conclusion of the Seahawks season.
Enjoyed this report. Nteresting to see others viewpoints!