What New Wrinkles Will Ryan Grubb Bring to Seattle Seahawks from Washington?

Bringing his high-octane offense to the NFL for the first time, it remains to be seen how similar Ryan Grubb's system will be with the Seahawks compared to his tenure in Montlake.

Seahawks coordinator Ryan Grubb will look to maximize on the talents of quarterback Geno Smith and running back Ken Walker III. /

Quickly rising up the coaching ranks, Ryan Grubb built a juggernaut during his two years as offensive coordinator at Washington, turning that unprecedented success into his first NFL gig in the same position for the Seattle Seahawks in February.

But while Grubb's dominance with the Huskies in the now-defunct Pac 12 conference may foreshadow similar triumphs as a play caller with the Seahawks, history has been littered with outstanding college coaches who failed to come close to replicating their success in the NFL. Those who have bucked that trend and thrived at both levels found a way to adapt their system to the pro game, which will be crucial to Grubb's chances of flourishing in the league.

At the same time, Grubb also would be wise not to try to reinvent the wheel either. As writer Danny B. Kelly of The Ringer discussed on the Locked On Seahawks podcast, he shouldn't get away from the approach that helped him coordinate one of the country's most potent offenses at Washington with an explosive downfield passing attack led by Heisman finalist Michael Penix Jr.

"Big picture, when I picture this offense, it's a little bit more spread out, vertical attack, just a little bit more high flying is the generic term I would use," Kelly said when asked what new wrinkles he expects Grubb to bring to Seattle's offense. "When you watched the Washington offense last year, it was a lot of vertical shots downfield. Their receivers make plays, they give their receivers a chance to make plays. I could see that being a focal point for the Seahawks offense."

In his two seasons at Montlake, Grubb oversaw Penix's rapid rise to a viable NFL prospect as the gun-slinging lefty threw for 9,544 yards and 67 touchdowns in two seasons as the starter for the Huskies. Benefiting from a receiving corps headlined by future top-10 pick Rome Odunze, JaLynn Polk, and Jalen McMillan, he spearheaded a dynamic passing game that finished in the top two in the nation during both of those seasons.

Interestingly, Grubb will now be linking up with veteran quarterback Geno Smith, who offers quite a few parallels to Penix skill-set wise. Per Pro Football Focus, Smith ranked second in the NFL over the past two seasons with 66 Big Time Throws, while Penix ranked first in the college ranks with 70. Both players thrived throwing the deep ball and did a great job of avoiding sacks on pressures by unloading the football quickly as well as adeptly moving the pocket.

As Kelly pointed out, Smith and Penix share many similarities "stylistically," including both being aggressive downfield passers and quick processors who know where to go with the football snap-to-snap, which helped them produce low pressure to sack rates for their respective teams the past two years. He anticipates those attributes will set Smith up for success in an offense where quickly working through reads and being able to consistently connect on deep shots will be emphasized.

Away from the downfield passing game, Kelly also envisions Grubb bringing a far more diversified screen game to Seattle. Over the past decade and change, regardless of offensive coordinator, the team has struggled to implement effective screens as part of the offense, but if his tenure at Washington hints at anything, that shouldn't be the case moving forward.

"The other thing that comes to mind - this has always been something that is super frustrating watching the Seahawks over the years - is a diverse screen game," Kelly added. "I remember seeing they were doing middle screens to receivers, delayed screens, things like that kind of kept defenses on their heels. Really excited to see how creative they can get with the screen game because it's sort of been the bane of the Seahawks existence over the years."

Listen to the latest Locked On Seahawks in entirety here as Kelly dives into Grubb's offense, examines what the run game may look like with Ken Walker III and Zach Charbonnet, discusses how the new system will benefit tight end Noah Fant, and more. Subscribe for free to the podcast platform of your choice here.