The Seahawks Need Rebuild, Not Tune-Up

The Seahawks' offense was abysmal on Monday night. But it may have finally convinced some of an inconvenient truth: everything, including a full scale rebuild, should be on the table this offseason.

The Seahawks have lost three straight games for the first time in the Russell Wilson era, albeit without Wilson taking a snap in two and a half of them. In the two games with Geno Smith at the helm, the long-held truth of Seahawks fans has been confirmed: Seattle isn’t anything without Russell Wilson. If Seattle was a car, Wilson is the engine. And without the engine, the car is worthless.

But even with the engine, a car still needs more to run well. It needs a battery, spark plugs, fuel filters, gasoline, tires, etc. A vehicle with a strong engine and passable spare parts can still get you from A to B, but it isn’t winning the Daytona 500. The Seahawks are a junker with a strong engine.

But unfortunately for the Seahawks and their fans, they’ve invested so much in the engine and the rims, that there isn’t enough left over to rebuild the car. In essence, the Seahawks are a suped-up Geo Metro trying to win the Daytona 500. The time has come to admit what most of us already knew: the Seahawks don’t need a tune-up, they need to build a new car from the ground up.

As always, the first step to solving a problem is admitting that there is one. That decision needs to come from Seahawks majority owner Jody Allen, who has been relatively quiet since inheriting the team from her late brother, Paul Allen. And in many ways, this may be the biggest obstacle to clear. A true rebuild is a commitment to take a clear step back, with no guarantee that the trip back will be quick. But it’s a move that needs to be made.

We do not know if Allen would then fire general manager John Schneider or head coach Pete Carroll, or if either would want to stick around for a rebuild. But that part comes later. Nothing can be done until Allen accepts the truth: surgery, not bandages are needed to resurrect the Seahawks to Super Bowl contenders. 

Every single aspect of this team needs to be evaluated. From Schneider, the mechanic, to Carroll, the driver, to even Wilson, the engine. The Seahawks are a team that hasn't proven they can draft consistently well. They've whiffed on some major trades. They've failed to develop talented players. Simply put, their failures are quickly catching up with them and every year, their margin of error gets smaller and smaller. 

It's time to stop throwing good money after bad investments and it's time to accept what every sign is telling you: it's time to break down and buy a new car. Change is a frightening thought. But maintaining the status quo just to avoid hard but necessary decisions isn't the way to win. It is the way you end up stuck in neutral.