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Ryan Grubb

Seahawks looking for more run-oriented offensive coordinator

The head coaching moves around the league tend to suck up all the oxygen at this time of year, but I notice the Seahawks fired offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb. For our fantasy purposes, that’s an impactful move.

Grubb is a good coordinator. He has shown he put together a high-level passing game. He was pulling the strings for the University of Washington offense that up big numbers two years ago, with Michael Penix and Rome Odunze getting selected with top-10 draft picks.

And Grubb had some success at the NFL level. At the halfway point of last year, the Seahawks were averaging a league-high 288 passing yards per game. Grubb won’t be unemployed for long. (I expect he’ll be a coordinator at the college or pro level.)

But Grubb doesn’t call the kind of game that Mike Macdonald wants. Macdonald is one of those “complementary football” guys, more interested in field position, time of possession and avoiding turnovers. He seems to be more interested in developing a steady running game that he can pair with an improving defense.

Seattle’s run game was below-average last year, averaging only 96 yards. Only four teams ran for fewer yards. That’s not all on Grubb; the team doesn’t have much of an offensive line. But he at times drifted away from the run too quickly. In the home loss against the Giants, most painfully, Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet (against a bottom-5 run defense) combined for only 7 carries for 30 yards.

So I’m marking this down as an offense that will be headed in a new direction. I don’t think they’ll be passing as much, and it’s really a change that started last year. The Seahawks averaged a league-high 288 passing yards in the first nine weeks of the season, but they ranked only 20th the rest of the way. Seattle’s passing production declined by 65 yards in the second half of the season, the largest decline in the league.

Macdonald indicates Geno Smith will be coming back. They’ve also got that nice one-two punch of receivers, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and DK Metcalf. But I don’t think they’ll working as hard to get the ball in the hands of those guys.

PASSING YARDS PER GAME
Weeks 1-9Weeks 10-18Difference
288 Seattle334 Cincinnati85 Cincinnati
268 Dallas314 Detroit78 Detroit
265 Tampa Bay270 Minnesota59 Arizona
264 Baltimore265 Tampa Bay55 Miami
263 San Francisco263 Miami54 Denver
260 Atlanta261 Las Vegas47 Tennessee
249 Cincinnati258 Arizona41 New England
248 Houston258 San Francisco41 Cleveland
246 LA Rams253 Denver35 Las Vegas
244 Green Bay250 Cleveland29 Carolina
243 Minnesota243 Atlanta27 Minnesota
243 Kansas City242 Buffalo20 LA Chargers
239 Washington239 LA Chargers19 Buffalo
238 NY Jets236 LA Rams7 Pittsburgh
237 Detroit235 Tennessee7 Indianapolis
226 Jacksonville234 NY Jets2 Chicago
226 Las Vegas234 Kansas City0 New Orleans
223 Buffalo226 Baltimore0 Tampa Bay
222 Philadelphia223 Washington-3 NY Jets
220 New Orleans223 Seattle-4 San Francisco
219 LA Chargers219 New Orleans-5 NY Giants
210 NY Giants218 New England-8 Kansas City
209 Cleveland217 Green Bay-9 LA Rams
209 Indianapolis216 Dallas-15 Jacksonville
208 Pittsburgh216 Carolina-15 Washington
208 Chicago216 Pittsburgh-17 Atlanta
208 Miami215 Indianapolis-27 Green Bay
199 Arizona215 Houston-28 Philadelphia
198 Denver211 Jacksonville-32 Houston
188 Tennessee210 Chicago-38 Baltimore
187 Carolina204 NY Giants-51 Dallas
178 New England194 Philadelphia-65 Seattle

Statistics compiled using search tools at Pro-Football-Reference.com

—Ian Allan

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