Richard Sherman right about what Seattle Seahawks need – kinda

We are eight weeks into this Seattle Seahawks season and it’s clear that they are missing something. Maybe a couple of somethings.

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After racing out to that fast start (mostly against teams and quarterbacks not going much of anywhere this season), they have lost four of five games. And for the second time in three weeks, they find themselves in desperate need of a win to avoid going into meltdown mode.

While the Seahawks aren’t the most talented team in the league, they have enough on their roster to expect them to be competitive every week. Head coach Mike Macdonald isn’t questioning their effort level, and he said that there isn’t a problem with the scheme. But the team can’t run the ball and they can’t stop the run. So what is it?

It’s with that question in mind that Richard Sherman enters the chat.

“The Seattle Seahawks look like they need leadership on defense,” he said on his podcast this week in a moment of lucidity. “They need a veteran presence to stabilize this defense. Maybe a Pro Bowler, maybe an All-Pro linebacker who’s just played a lot of football. Just somebody that’s been there, that knows the team, that knows the city … Don’t get me started on the idiocracy that it is to watch Bobby Wagner walk away for the second time. Not the first time – second time!”

Oh well. What started as actual analysis turned out to be just a pitch for his old teammate.

Wagner was not necessarily the solution for what ails these Seahawks, but the comment does bring up one of the problems that hasn’t been discussed: they do need leadership.

That isn’t to say the team doesn’t have veterans. They do. Geno Smith and Tyler Lockett are both in their 30s and should be resources for younger players on the team. Same with Jarran Reed, Leonard Williams and others on the defensive side of the ball. But one thing those four have in common (along with every other player on the roster until the arrival of special teamer Josh Ross) is that they have never played for Mike Macdonald.

When Macdonald first arrived, we all wondered which coaches and players he would bring along with him. When he eschewed the tradition of hiring coaches from his previous locale, it came with an understandable rationale: he was looking for the best teachers rather than the ones with the most familiarity with his system.

It’s compelling logic, and proof that he isn’t beholden to the good ol’ boy culture that is too pervasive in the NFL. But maybe having someone else who “speaks his language” could have helped ease the transition and lessened the strain on the head coach himself. How much easier would it be to have others on staff with an understanding of the concepts that predate this past offseason?

While a coach with familiarity might have helped with the installation, the last few weeks make a case for Sherman’s observation that they needed more veteran leadership – though not necessarily for the reasons he may think.

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Sherm is (as always) clouded by his dismissal from Seattle. He believes the team should have kept the entire band together forever. It’s a revisionist version of history that conveniently forgets the injuries, the decline, the salary cap, and the behavior that ultimately led to his exit and some of the others around him.

“There’s a standard set,” Sherm said of Wagner. “But people are so quick to move on. They’re quick to say, ‘Oh, the new thing’s the better thing.’ It’s not.”

Maybe he’s talking about his former teammate, but it sure sounds like he’s just talking about himself. Shocker.

And yet I do believe Macdonald would have been served to have more veteran leadership on his team, though not necessarily for the same reasons as Sherm. Just as coaches familiar with Macdonald’s system would be helpful to explain it to others in the building, so too would a player or two familiar with his culture. Sure, they could be a useful voice on the field to make sure the communication is on point, but even more importantly, they could testify as to the success of the scheme and culture. That might have been helpful at the start, but I would think it is even more important now, when things aren’t going as smoothly as possible and doubt could start to creep in.

While Wagner could certainly have provided leadership both on and off the field, he is also a direct link to the past. And with a new coach coming in trying to set his own culture, those constant reminders of the previous regime can lead to mixed messaging. Remember, this is the head coach that removed the basketball hoop from the meeting room and set about redecorating the halls to reinforce his philosophies rather than those of his predecessor.

Yes, Macdonald could have used a veteran presence. But that presence should have had familiarity with his system and culture. Someone who could translate the coaches’ words and reinforce the validity of his culture. Someone who could, for lack of a better word, proselytize his vision from a place of experience. Maybe the addition of Ross was a (small) step in that direction.

Macdonald said after Sunday’s loss to Buffalo that he would be trimming the playbook.

“I think you gotta start making some decisions on where to narrow it down. You can’t focus on everything,” he said. “So taking out the stuff that we feel like is kind of sunk costs at this point, maybe trying to trim that and then really focusing on and honing in on the stuff that we want to go excel at.”

Maybe less is more? Certainly that is the hope and it makes sense. But why is it necessary?

According to Macdonald, they haven’t “executed the things well enough and created the situations where we want to be able to get to everything. You have some things that would help schematically, but the answer at the end of the day isn’t the X’s and O’s. It’s really not.”

More: Macdonald on where Seahawks are at with schemes

While my initial read on that was to suggest that he was blaming the talent rather than the coaching, perhaps a clearer interpretation is that he needs players with more experience in the system to be able to everyone get deeper into the playbook.

Macdonald could use some help. He could use more veteran experience in the locker room and on the field. And he could use more familiarity with his system. I’m curious to see if and when that occurs.

Thanks, Sherm!

More on the Seattle Seahawks

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• Huard: A troubling Seahawks stat sticks out after loss to Bills
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• Disastrous goal-line gaffes doom Seattle Seahawks in ugly loss

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