The chance to coordinate has been a long time coming for the former Patriots, UMass and BB&N assistant
Seattle Seahawks Offensive Coordinator Shane Waldron will make his debut tonight against the Las Vegas Raiders. It has been a long time coming for the former Tufts tight end and long snapper.
Waldron wasn’t raised in Massachusetts. He grew up in Oregon but attended Phillips Andover Academy and stayed in the state when he decided to attend Tufts University.
After graduating from Tufts, Waldron joined the New England Patriots in 2002 as an operation intern and operation assistant. He went onto win two Super Bowl with the organization.
Waldron left the Patriots after the 2004 season and joined Charlie Weis’ staff at Notre Dame as a graduate assistant. He returned to the Patriots in 2008 as an offensive quality control coach and was eventually promoted to tight ends coach. In 2010, Waldron left the Patriots for the Hartford Colonials of the United Football League where he served as wide receivers coach.
In 2011, Waldron returned to Massachusetts. This time he was the offensive coordinator at Buckingham Browne and Nichols under former coach John Papas. Waldron coached with former Tufts teammate and good friend Mike Willey.
Waldron lived with Willey at the time. Willey was always impressed at how hard Waldron worked.
“Shane lived with me when he came back to Massachusetts. We talked about things all the time. I was always impressed with how detailed oriented he was. He wanted to grow as a coach. When he wasn’t meeting with the tight ends, he would sit in other meetings.”
Willey credits Waldron with helping learn how to game plan snd organize an offense.
”When we coached under Coach Papas, I was the offensive line coach and Shane was the offensive coordinator. He taught me so much about organizing an offense and game planning. It was a masters degree in offense. He was always detailed and communicated well with players and coaches.”
After a season at the high school level, Waldron returned to the college game. This time at UMass as tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator. He would later serve as offensive line coach.
It was at this time when I met Shane. I was the head coach at Norwood High School. He would come down on recruiting visits in December and we would talk football after his visit was complete. Shane was always willing to share his knowledge and talk ball. He was a class act.
In 2016, Shane landed with the Washington Redskins as an offensive quality control coach. While with the Redskins, he met Sean McVay who was the offensive coordinator at the time. McVay became head coach of the Los Angeles Rams in 2017 and Waldron joined him as tight ends coach.
Waldron eventually ascended to pass game coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Waldron spent four seasons in Los Angeles with McVay until he got the opportunity to coordinate with the Seahawks.
Tbose that know Waldron know that the road hasn’t always been easy for him. Despite the roller coaster ride that is coaching, Waldron stuck it out and is now coaching Russell Wilson and a talented skill group in Seattle. He has earned this opportunity and we wish nothing but the best.