Field Gulls
The Seahawks play action game is a mess under Ryan Grubb.
The Seattle Seahawks offense is as bad as we’ve seen it in years under new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb. Early optimism and hype following his days at the University of Washington have fizzled, and the stats are not pretty.
Among the themes of this season has been the seemingly bizarre lack of play action usage from Grubb, representing a complete departure from previous Seahawks offensive coordinators Darrell Bevell, Brian Schottenheimer, and Shane Waldron. According to NextGenStats, Smith ranks 33rd out of 34 quarterbacks in play-action rate. Smith has yet to attempt double-digit PA passes in a game under Grubb, a far cry from his usage under Waldron.
It’s often parroted on broadcasts that you need to run the ball well to set up play-action passing. The Seahawks rank 29th in rush/EPA and 20th in yards/carry, but they’ve made some progress in recent weeks, particularly in the road win over the Arizona Cardinals. However, there is no supporting evidence of needing to have an effective run game to be good at play action.
Here’s what Mike Macdonald had to say about the topic on Monday.
“I stand on both sides of the argument,” he said. “I think it’s more based on the sets and the protections and the situations that dictate what defenses can do in some of those situations. We have a good play action pass game, probably should see more of it frankly. To a certain extent, the effectiveness of your run game affects play action game, especially if you get it really going. But those are good plays.”
Keep in mind that line about “sets and the protections” because that’ll be relevant later in the article.
The stats indicate the Seahawks not only use play action infrequently but use it poorly. Geno Smith ranks 27th in EPA/dropback on play action passes and his air yards/attempt is just 7.3. For perspective, last year Smith was 7th in EPA/dropback and his air yards/attempt was 8.5, and that’s even with a modest 21st ranking in PA usage. Let’s not pretend the 2023 Seahawks had a good offensive line or a good running game, either.
Smith has been sacked eight times off of PA, which is fourth-most in the NFL behind Justin Herbert, Jayden Daniels, and Caleb Williams. However, Smith’s average time to throw on PA is 3.38 seconds, which is about the same as his TtT in 2023. His pressure rate is actually lower this season compared to last (36.9% vs. 40.5%)
Of Geno Smith’s 49 completed play action passes, only seven have resulted in 20+ yard gains. Compared that with 2023, when 21 of 84 PA throws went for at least 20 yards. Play action isn’t used primarily for generating big plays, but it’s proven that average air yards/attempt increase in PA compared to straight dropback.
Even if you...
