SEATTLE — Yet again, something had to change on the Seahawks’ offensive line.
Its coach did.
Pete Carroll has fired veteran NFL assistant Mike Solari after four seasons as Seattle’s offensive line coach. A league source told The News Tribune Friday morning of the first change to the team’s top offensive coaching staff for 2022.
The 67-year-old Solari began coaching NFL offensive lines in 1987, with the Dallas Cowboys. This had been his second stint with Seattle. He was the Seahawks’ line coach in 2008 and ‘09, before Carroll arrived in January 2010 to overhaul the franchise.
As on their defensive coaching staff, the Seahawks are getting younger for their offensive line coach for 2022. Carroll is promoting Andy Dickerson, who just turned 40, from running game coordinator to offensive line coach. NFL reporter Mike Silver of Bally Sports was the first to report that Friday.
Dickerson became popular with Seahawks players in his first year with the team in 2021. He arrived with new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron last offseason from the Los Angeles Rams’ staff.
Multiple reports Friday, including out of Chicago, said Seattle is hiring 38-year-old Sean Desai to be an associate head coach for the defense. Desai was the Bears’ defensive coordinator last season. He missed out after interviewing for multiple coordinator jobs in the league the last few weeks.
He may become something of a co-defensive coordinator with 43-year-old Clint Hurtt. A league source told the TNT last week Carroll is expected to promote Hurtt from defensive line coach to replace fired Ken Norton Jr. in running Carroll’s defense.
The Seahawks are also believed to be close to naming 36-year-old Karl Scott, a Minnesota Vikings assistant last season, as the defensive passing game coordinator working with the secondary.
Solari had arrived for the 2018 season to replace the unconventional Tom Cable as the leader of the Seahawks’ blockers. But their blocking failed to get consistently better.
Quarterback Russell Wilson complained, loudly and publicly, 12 months ago: “I’m frustrated with getting hit too much.” That was while Wilson was the most sacked quarterback in the league the previous nine seasons.
His 10th year included missing games for the first time in his career due to a finger injury. Wilson missed three games, then came back too soon from his finger surgery and was affected for three more. The Seahawks went 1-5 in those games, effectively eliminated from the playoffs for just the second time in 10 years. They finished 7-10. T
he Seahawks with Solari as line coach failed to consistently protect Wilson. They failed to consistently run block to give their quarterback and blockers better opportunities for play-action passes.
They also failed to upgrade at center, the line’s anchor position that’s been a problem for Seattle since it traded Pro Bowl center Max Unger in the spring of 2015 for tight end Jimmy Graham.
Unger leaving took the foundational, Super Bowl-champion centerpiece and signal caller out of the all-important offensive line. Unger held down the Seahawks center spot for four seasons through two Super Bowls. He plowed for running back Marshawn Lynch. He protected Wilson. He anchored one of the strengths of the team.
And Unger was popular in the locker room. Wilson loved him.
The Seahawks’ offensive line has mostly been in shambles since they traded him away.
Wilson has not loved that.
In 2020, Solari decided to move Ethan Pocic to his college position of center, after Solari had tried his second-round draft choice at tackle and guard. Pocic started the 2020 season.
Solari then made Kyle Fuller the starting center for 2021, moving him back to his college position after years of having Fuller as a backup guard. The Seahawks benched Fuller after seven games, when Pocic returned from injury this past fall.
Pocic is unsigned and the Seahawks remain uncertain at center. And at left tackle, 36-year-old Duane Brown is eligible for free agency next month. And at right tackle, Brandon Shell’s contract has expired.
So, yes, Dickerson and Waldron have a lot of work to do.
Nothing new for Seattle’s offensive line.
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