Eight games in, the Seattle Seahawks’ offense is still searching for its footing, and the frustration around first-year offensive coordinator Brian Fleury is only getting louder.
The issues have piled up in plain sight. Injuries and bad luck have played a part, but the Seahawks have also hurt themselves with sloppy execution and a stubborn habit of giving the ball away. With nearly half the regular season gone, fans are starting to run out of patience with Fleury, who entered the year as a first-time play-caller and has yet to quiet the criticism.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba, though, wasn’t interested in joining the chorus aimed at the coaching staff. The reigning Offensive Player of the Year pushed the focus back onto the players and their performance.
"I thought [the play-calling] was fine," the wideout said (h/t Spoksman)." There’s a lot of areas where we need to look at and point the finger to.
I think we all take the blame, and we all could get better... We didn’t execute well.
Plain and simple."
There’s truth in that. Sam Darnold has not been sharp, with bad reads and poor decisions showing up too often. Outside of JSN, most of the pass catchers have struggled to create separation, and the turnovers and lack of a reliable run game have made the offense even harder to trust.
Still, the coaching hasn’t exactly helped matters. Fleury has kept leaning on the run on early downs even when it hasn’t been working, which keeps putting Darnold behind the chains and into too many third-and-long situations.
The overall approach has looked conservative and easy to read. Smith-Njigba can create after the catch because he’s twitchy and dynamic, but this offense can’t keep living off one player making something out of nothing.
Even with Rashid Shaheed back this season, Seattle still looks like a team that needs another receiver. Cooper Kupp is no longer the kind of player who can carry a passing game, and nobody else has stepped forward to change that.
The ground game could get a boost if Jadarian Price and Zach Charbonnet return, and the trade for Quenton Nelson should help as well. But Fleury still has to do his part by finding mismatches, attacking weak spots in opposing defenses and adjusting when the original plan isn’t working.
It’s been that kind of season in Seattle, one where little seems to break the Seahawks’ way. Injuries and strange bounces have piled up, and they’ve also ended up on the wrong side of close games they would’ve won 9 times out of 10 last season.
Even so, there’s still half a season left to fix it. The players have to be better, as JSN said, but the man calling the plays can’t escape the spotlight either.
In Other News...
Seahawks Defense Has A Film Problem Fans Will Notice Fast
The Seahawks defense left plenty to sort through after the loss to the Bears, and the film points to a few issues that were hard to miss. Chicago stayed committed to the run on first down, then kept Seattle in uncomfortable spots on second down, where the Bears were able to stay on schedule and avoid obvious passing downs.
Caleb Williams also found answers in the passing game, especially between the numbers and on deeper throws, which made the Bears offense tougher to pin down than Seattle would have liked. The numbers from the game line up with broader NFL trends in a way that should get the Seahawks attention, because this was less about one busted play than a defense that struggled to get off the field in the moments that mattered most. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Roster Shuffle Hints At Injury Plan Before Cardinals Game
The Seahawks made a small but telling roster move this week, releasing running back Velus Jones Jr. and bringing him back on the practice squad to open a spot on the 53-man roster. It is the kind of transaction that usually says as much about the injury report as it does about the player involved, especially with Seattle trying to sort through multiple health issues before its Week 9 meeting with the Arizona Cardinals.
Seattle also added quarterback Adrian Martinez and linebacker Jamie Sheriff to the practice squad, giving the team a little more depth as it navigates the week. The open roster spot is expected to be filled by a player from one of the injured positions, which suggests the Seahawks are already bracing for some shuffling before they get to Arizona. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Injury Trouble Just Hit Two Spots They Cant Afford
The Seahawks are dealing with fresh injury complications in two places they can least afford them, and both come with immediate lineup implications. Guard Quenton Nelson is set for a minor knee procedure and is expected to be out week-to-week, though Seattle is not planning to place him on injured reserve, according to coach Mike Macdonald. The team also had to sort through a handful of other injury updates and lineup changes as it tried to keep the depth chart intact.
At quarterback, the situation is just as uneasy. Drew Lock will start against Arizona with Sam Darnold sidelined, even as Lock has been limited in practice by an elbow issue. For a Seahawks team trying to steady itself, the timing of those absences only adds to the pressure heading into a game where every healthy body matters. [Read more 🡒]