RENTON, Wash. -- In the second quarter of last Sunday's game vs. the Arizona Cardinals, Geno Smith raised his hands in preparation for the shotgun snap, then stepped towards his offensive line to relay an audible. The new play was a handoff to Zach Charbonnet, who followed two pulling blockers into the second level, broke a tackle and raced 51 yards to the end zone.
The Seattle Seahawks quarterback has considerable freedom to change plays based on what he sees at the line of scrimmage. But this audible came straight from first-year offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who had seen Arizona's defensive look from the coaches' booth and correctly anticipated a blitz.
With the Seahawks in no-huddle, they'd gotten to the line with roughly 30 seconds on the play clock, leaving Grubb time to give Smith a new play before the speaker inside the quarterback's helmet cut off at the 15-second mark. The long touchdown that followed highlighted Seattle's best offensive performance of 2024, led by a once-stagnant running game exploding for a season-high 176 yards.
"Grubb was outstanding," Smith said after the Seahawks won 30-18 for their fourth straight victory. "Just the calmness and the playcalls coming in, he was very clear and concise with what he wanted to do ... We had a great game plan going in, and I thought we executed. I thought Grubb ... was confident. He took shots when he needed to and he managed the clock when he needed to.
"He's one of those guys, man. He's a really good offensive coordinator."
Grubb will need to keep proving as much in order for the Seahawks (8-5) to stay atop the NFC West standings and maintain their tenuous hold on a playoff spot during a difficult closing stretch. That continues Sunday night against the 9-4 Green Bay Packers at Lumen Field, where Seattle will host the 11-2 Minnesota Vikings seven days later.
Those fellow NFC contenders rank ninth and sixth, respectively, in points allowed, which will make the Seahawks' next two games a measure of their offense's recent improvement and of Grubb's growth in his up-and-down debut season in the NFL. The 48-year-old coordinator had never worked at the pro level before coach Mike Macdonald hired him in February after his two seasons at the University of Washington, a run that ended with a loss in the national championship game.
"I think all of our coaches, but I'll include Ryan in this, this is a growing process for all of us as a staff," Macdonald said. "I can tell you personally how much I've learned just becoming a head coach. I can talk to you about the learning curve that it took me coming back from Michigan, and becoming a coordinator for the first time. I think Ryan's on the same learning curve. So we're in this thing together, I think he's doing a great job."
Grubb's learning curve was steepened by the fact that he'd never worked in the NFL, where the spacing is different than in college thanks to the tighter hashes, and where the possessions are fewer with a running clock.
Amid the expected growing pains with their rookie OC and an O-line that's only now rounding into form, the Seahawks rank 17th in offensive points per game (20.5) and 13th in yards (344.4), with most of their success coming through the air.
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Before Grubb got the job, he had to convince Macdonald that he could shift gears towards a balanced offense after coordinating some of college football's most pass-heavy attacks at Washington and Fresno State while working for head coach Kalen DeBoer.
The Seahawks' run game had been a bottom-tier operation for much of the season until last Sunday, but the signs of an eventual breakout had been there for a few weeks as they slowly began committing more to the run after their bye in Week 10.
Over the first nine games, Seattle had the NFL's second-lowest designed rush rate at 31.2%. Over the last four games, they're 14th in that metric 39.9%. That timeframe has also coincided with a decrease in their shotgun percentage, a staple of college offenses that Grubb leaned heavily on out of the gates. The Seahawks have been in shotgun on 68.5% of their plays (19th) over the last four games, down from 80.8% (fourth) before the bye.
"You use that bye week to study yourself, and I think there was a serious study that said, 'We are too predictable, and we are living in this shotgun which is making life really hard on the offensive line and really difficult in the run game,'" said Brock Huard, a former Washington and NFL quarterback turned college football analyst. "I don't think there's any coincidence that they're playing better, that they're running the ball better because they've been able to be more versatile and have a lot more mix."
Grubb said recently that he and Macdonald have "really come together" on how to win games over the last few weeks, which Huard sees as a significant difference between coaching in college versus the NFL.
"The college game, you can go out there, certainly the last two years at Washington with the pieces they had and the talent they had and [say], 'This is what we do, this is how we're going to play. We're going to step on the gas and go for it.' Almost every single game. Whereas the NFL, because of the fewer amount of plays, the fewer possessions, the much leveler playing field, you do have to go into every one of those games with, 'OK, how do I win this week?' Not my scheme for the season, but how do I win this week?"
Grubb had the right answers to that question last week against Arizona. In the first meeting two weeks earlier, the Seahawks had slogged their way to a 16-6 win despite rushing for only 2.6 yards per carry and allowing five sacks of Smith. In the rematch, their run game exploded and Smith wasn't sacked for the first time all season. The game plan included more gap-scheme run plays like the one that resulted in Charbonnet's 51-yard touchdown.
When Macdonald was asked about what was working so well for the Seahawks' run game, the first part of his answer was a nod to Grubb.
"Well I thought one," Macdonald said, "I thought we had a great plan."
Grubb and Macdonald seem to be finding alignment, something Grubb built with DeBoer over their four stops together.
"Certainly there's built up reps, so to speak, with a guy like Kalen when I was with him for a long time," Grubb said. "So when you hit those bumps in the road, they're easier to manage and get through. Certainly, this season has provided a lot of growth opportunities for Mike and I, and I'm thankful for that. I think the relationship has gotten stronger and the understanding of what we're trying to get done as a team just continues to build. So it's been fun, honestly."