The Seahawks are only halfway through the season, but Brian Fleury is already under the microscope.
Seattle’s decision to hand the offense to a first-time play-caller came with obvious risk from the start. Klint Kubiak had left after a short stint, and Fleury arrived from the same Shanahan-Kubiak coaching tree, but trusting him to steer the Super Bowl champions’ offense was always a gamble. At the time, though, the Seahawks didn’t have many attractive alternatives.
Now, after Week 8, that choice is starting to look shaky.
Fleury has gotten some cover because Sam Darnold missed time and the offense has dealt with injuries, but the problems in the Bears loss were hard to ignore. The game plan never really took hold against Dennis Allen’s defense, even as Jadarian Price and Zach Charbonnet were averaging just 2.9 and 3.8 yards per carry, respectively. Still, Fleury kept leaning on run calls on first and second down.
That approach put Darnold in the kind of spots he has never handled well. He deserves blame for the turnovers and for the offense’s overall struggles, but the play-calling hasn’t helped him out much either. It has repeatedly left him facing third-and-long, where things tend to break down.
The most glaring issue was how little Jaxon Smith-Njigba was used. Seattle has the best wide receiver in the game, and when the Bears gave him space, he made them pay.
Whenever he got the ball, he put their vulnerable cornerbacks in a blender. And yet the Seahawks didn’t go back to him again until the game was already out of reach.
He wasn’t being tightly covered, and Darnold wasn’t missing him all that often. He simply wasn’t featured enough.
There was a point when giving Fleury the benefit of the doubt made sense. Getting plays in late and dealing with communication issues are common early hiccups for a first-time coordinator. The injuries also made life difficult, and Darnold’s missed time didn’t help.
But the context has changed. The offensive line just got a major boost with Quenton Nelson.
Price and Charbonnet are back. The game was at home.
Rashid Shaheed being out matters, but not in the same way as losing JSN. So what explains the lack of urgency now?
The bigger concern is that the offense has regressed after Kubiak’s departure. Darnold has looked like a throwback in all the wrong ways, and the passing game has mostly boiled down to getting the ball to Smith-Njigba and hoping he can create something after the catch. He’s a superstar, and the best in the business, but he can’t carry everything by himself.
Seattle still needs the run game to come alive, and the return of the backs plus Nelson’s arrival could help with that. But that’s on the coordinator, too. When the ground game isn’t working, the offense has to adjust.
Instead, the Seahawks showed little urgency even while trailing by multiple scores. Darnold should have pushed a no-huddle look and sped things up, but the coaching staff deserves its share of the blame for the slow response.
At the halfway point, Seattle sits in the middle of the league in passing yards per game at 229.6, 15th, and rushing yards per game at 113.7, 18th. The turnovers continue to haunt them every week.
Execution has to improve, no question. But the play-calling hasn’t made life easier, and unless there’s a major turnaround over the final nine games, Fleury is starting to look like a one-and-done in Seattle.
In Other News...
Seahawks Suddenly Have A Bigger Sam Darnold Problem Than One Loss
The Seahawks Monday night loss to the Bears did more than knock Seattle back to .500. It put Sam Darnold right back at the center of the conversation, after a night in which he finished 17 of 34 for 188 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. For a team trying to steady itself in a crowded NFC race, the issue is no longer just one rough result, but whether the quarterback position is giving Seattle enough certainty moving forward.
Darnolds uneven season has already prompted bigger-picture questions about how long the Seahawks will stay committed to him, and the timing only sharpens the discussion. Seattle is sitting at 4-4, and with the organization already being linked to the idea of finding a future answer at quarterback, the next few seasons could determine whether Darnold remains part of the plan or whether the Seahawks eventually look to the draft for a successor such as LaNorris Sellers. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Suddenly Have A Jaxon Smith-Njigba Problem They Must Solve
Jaxon Smith-Njigba did his part in Seattles 34-17 loss to the Bears, turning in a strong showing while the rest of the Seahawks receiving group struggled to keep pace. It was the kind of game that can sharpen a front offices focus, because when one pass catcher is carrying so much of the load, the imbalance becomes hard to ignore.
With the November 10 trade deadline approaching, Seattle is reportedly weighing whether to add another wide receiver to give the offense more reliability and depth. Names such as Josh Downs, Brian Thomas Jr., Calvin Ridley, Rashod Bateman, Jerry Jeudy and Jauan Jennings have surfaced as possible targets, and the Seahawks now have to decide how aggressively they want to address a problem that showed up clearly in Chicago. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Have An Edge Rush Problem Only One Proven Veteran Solves
The Seahawks edge rush has become one of the more obvious pressure points on the roster, and it is hard to ignore how much the defense could use a steadier presence on the outside. Dante Fowler Jr. has not given Seattle much in the way of reliable production or consistent snaps, which has only sharpened the need for a veteran who can change the tone of a pass rush without requiring a long adjustment period.
Khalil Mack is the name that keeps coming up because he still looks like a proven answer even as the Chargers have stumbled through a rough season. For Seattle, the appeal is obvious: a player with the rsum and edge presence to help right a problem area right away, if the Seahawks decide the price is worth paying. [Read more 🡒]