When the Seattle Seahawks hired former Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb to fill the same position on their staff, it seemed like they had finally struck gold. With one small exception (Brian Schottenhiemer did nothing wrong) Seattle has struggled through mediocre performers in this key position for most of the John Schneider-Pete Carroll era. Grubb came as a highly-touted college playcaller who understands the modern game and would certainly get the best out of Geno Smith after leading Michael Penix to a National Championship game and almost a Heisman award.
Sadly, it didn’t turn out that way. Grubb showed some promise the first four weeks of the season, particularly the 29 points he managed to produce against a very tough Detroit Lions defense and coaching staff. However, after that the unit fell on hard times and it never really recovered – one glaring exception being the victory over the Atlanta Falcons at midseason. Aside from that, the offense underperformed more often than not – especially in the run game which was supposed to be this unit’s strength and bread and butter coming into this year.
And so the Seahawks have confirmed the most-easily anticipated move of the offseason. According to Adam Schefter at ESPN, head coach Mike Macdonald has fired Grubb after just one year of work.
Grubb was blessed with an accurate, aggressive and intelligent quarterback, one of the best wide receiver combos in football and two very gifted young running backs, but simply wasn’t able to overcome the one challenge that mattered most. Seattle’s offensive line was as bad this year as it ever was in the Carroll era, and that’s some stuff competition.
For the season the Seahawks averaged just 95.7 rushing yards per game. Only four teams averaged fewer in 2024. The problem there was a lack of quality run blocking rather than talent in the backfield, of which there is plenty. Pro Football Focus gave Seattle a 58.4 grade in run blocking on the year, which ranked 24th in the league.
Meanwhile, their pass protection was just as bad more often than not. Geno Smith is one of the best quarterbacks in the league at avoiding sacks and pressures and he still managed to take a career-high 50 sacks. The PFF grades align here, as well as Seattle was ranked 26th in pass blocking for the season.
Grubb could have helped himself by calling more play action and using misdirection as a general principle more often, but the key problem was he simply wasn’t able to scheme around having that bad of a line. While his firing is justified, whoever replaces him at OC may very well do no better given the situation.
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