Reports: Seahawks fire offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell
The Seattle Seahawks have fired offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell after seven seasons with the team.
Seattle has not yet announced the move, which was first reported late Tuesday night by KJR reporter Curtis Crabtree and has since been confirmed by other outlets.
The 48-year-old Bevell joined the Seahawks in 2011, after a five-year stint as coordinator with the Minnesota Vikings.
Seattle Times reporter Bob Condotta, citing a source, wrote that more changes could be in the offing on the Seahawks’ staff. But firing his assistant coaches isn’t something head coach Pete Carroll does often; while he has had others move on, like Dan Quinn, who was Seattle’s defensive coordinator before being hired as the Atlanta Falcons’ head coach, Carroll hasn’t fired a member of his staff since 2010.
That year, he also fired the team’s offensive coordinator, Jeremy Bates.
While Seattle has enjoyed a tremendous run of success in recent seasons – this is the first time since 2011 the team hasn’t been part of the playoffs, making back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, with one win, in that span – Bevell’s play-calling has often come under fire.
The most (in)famous such occasion was at the end of Super Bowl XLIX, when the Seahawks had first-and-goal from the 5, 66 seconds and one timeout to get the game-winning touchdown against the New England Patriots. On first down, Bevell called a run play to Marshawn Lynch, who was stopped at the 1. On second down, instead of going to Lynch again, Bevell called a pass play right into the middle of the defense.
We all remember what happened: Patriots then-rookie Malcolm Butler made the play of his life, getting a goal-line interception to preserve the win for New England.
Carroll defended Bevell’s choice of play despite the result.
While a good number of fans have called for Bevell’s dismissal in recent years, one of the higher-profile among them did too: in a 2015 Facebook post, Delisa Lynch, Marshawn’s mother, called for Bevell to be fired, calling him “the worst play-caller ever” and said that the Seattle staff “loves that play caller more than a win.”
As a college quarterback, Bevell led Wisconsin to its first Rose Bowl berth in 30 years in 1993.
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