What Pete Carroll seeks in a new Seahawks D coordinator: pass rush, turnovers, familiarity

Will he follow his pattern or change it?

When Pete Carroll made his first change of Seahawks defensive coordinators nine years ago, he hired one of his own: Dan Quinn.

When Carroll made his second change of Seahawks defensive coordinators seven years ago, he hired the assistant whose coaching career he had started years earlier: Kris Richard.

When Carroll made his third change of Seahawks defensive coordinators four years ago, he hired another assistant whose coaching career he had started: Ken Norton Jr.

Tuesday, Carroll fired Norton, whom he had given his first coaching job, at USC in 2004.

Now, for the hiring of his fourth defensive coordinator in 12 years leading the Seahawks, will Carroll bring in another one of his own guys who is familiar with the head boss’ defense and how he wants the system played?

There is no shortage of experienced, seemingly available candidates that fit that description. One is Gus Bradley. Now 55, Bradley was Carroll’s first Seahawks defensive coordinator from 2010-12, the top assistant Carroll retained from the staff of fired Jim Mora’s one Seattle season in 2009. Bradley, like Quinn, left the job only because he parlayed his success running Carroll’s defensive system in Seattle into his first head-coaching jobs in the NFL.

Or will Carroll, at age 70, extend himself to hire the first truly new outsider of his Seahawks tenure?

That is the question of the first major change for 2022 resulting from Seattle’s 7-10 season, its most losses since 2009, and from Carroll’s and general manager John Schneider’s end-of-season meeting late last week with Seahawks chair Jody Allen.

It is status quo atop the Seahawks franchise for the coming year. It is not status quo on defense. That unit couldn’t get off the field, consistently pressure quarterbacks or cover receivers as aggressively as Carroll’s teams mostly have.

The Seahawks have requested permission to interview Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler Tuesday. At first glance that appears to be interest in an outside coordinator.

The 64-year-old Donatell knows how Carroll wants a defense run. He first worked with Carroll way back in 1983, at Pacific. Donatell was Carroll’s defensive backs coach when Carroll was the defensive coordinator at his alma mater. When Carroll was the defensive coordinator with the New York Jets from 1990-93, Donatell was his DBs coach. Donatell stayed in that job the one season Carroll got as a first-time head coach, with the Jets in 1994.

Donatell has been the defensive coordinator for Green Bay, Atlanta and Denver in the NFL. He also was Tyrone Willingham’s defensive coordinator for the University of Washington in 2008, the infamous season the Huskies went 0-12.

Donatell is known for varied defenses and for being a coordinator for defensive-minded head coaches. He was the Broncos’ coordinator when defense-first Vic Fangio was largely running Denver’s defense as head man from 2019 until the Broncos fired Fangio Jan. 9.

Donatell and Fangio had Denver in two-high safety looks pre-snap — what Seattle was in more than ever under Carroll in 2021 — more than any other NFL team, more than 60% of the time. Then Fangio’s and Donatell’s Broncos defenses often jumped into single-high coverage, cover three that Carroll won a Super Bowl with on his best Seattle defenses, or into rolling hybrids of cover three with deep safety help to confuse quarterbacks after snaps.

Donatell’s son Tom was a defensive quality-control assistant for the Seahawks and Carroll from 2017-20.

Two other outside candidates have reportedly emerged. The Athletic reported Seattle wants to interview Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai, 38, who just finished his first season in that job in Chicago.

Wednesday, NFL Network reported the Seahawks have also requested to interview Dallas Cowboys defensive passing game coordinator and secondary coach Joe Whitt Jr. Whitt has worked for Quinn twice--in Atlanta, and now on Quinn’s defense in Dallas. Quinn hired Whitt, 43, to the same job with the Falcons for 2020

Hence, Carroll’s interest in Whitt.

Carroll’s unit

To be clear: the Seahawks defense is Carroll’s defense.

He is a former defensive back, at the University of the Pacific in the early 1970s. He came up the coaching ranks as a defensive backs coach then a defensive coordinator. Since 2010 he’s been the Seahawks’ ultimate authority as coach and executive vice president for football operations. Particularly for his defense, he’s the decider on drafting, trading for and signing free agents players.

Carroll installs the schemes. He runs his 4-3 system that interchanges ends, tackles and outside linebackers with 3-4-like principles. He demands Seahawks cornerbacks learn the patient, step-kick technique at the line of scrimmage that is unique and not easy to learn, or teach.

These are some of the reasons he’s tended to go back to defensive coaches he’s brought up. Quinn knew the 4-3/3-4 mix and value of versatility in edge players Carroll wants, because he first was Carroll’s defensive line coach for Seattle. Richard knew the step-kick technique technique because he was a defensive backs coach for Carroll and the Seahawks for five years, before Carroll gave him the coordinator job in 2015.

Carroll wants the Seahawks defense to be more aggressive, to dictate more to offenses in 2022. He wants to play more single-high safety coverage. To do that, he will need to re-sign Quandre Diggs, a Pro Bowl free safety for the season coming off a broken leg in the season finale Jan. 9. Carroll would rather use Jamal Adams more in a Kam Chancellor-like strong safety role, closer to the line.

Carroll wants to end the soft, two-high-safety coverage he and Norton used for too much of the 2021 season because they felt the Seahawks had to. The coaches didn’t trust their revolving cast of new cornerbacks.

Until Adams got a season-ending shoulder injury in early December, the Seahawks blitzed him far less in 2021 than 2020. Carroll and Norton felt they needed to have Adams and Diggs as guards over the top, behind those iffy cornerbacks, to prevent the huge pass plays the Seahawks allowed for the first halves of the 2020 and ‘21 seasons. That was when Seattle didn’t have a pass rush other than Adams’ blitzing and was on NFL-record paces for yards allowed.

The uncharacteristic, two-high coverage for Carroll in 2021 worked in not giving up points; the last-place Seahawks were 11th in the league in points allowed. But it failed to get the ball back to Russell Wilson and the needy offense.

Seattle was 28th in yards allowed. Most damning, the defense produced just 18 turnovers in 17 games, the stat Carroll believes is the sport’s most important toward winning.

Not only was that the fewest takeaways for a Carroll defense in Seattle, it was the fewest turnovers produced in a season in the Seahawks’ 46-year history. When the Seahawks won the Super Bowl at the end of the 2013 season and made it to another Super Bowl the following season, they had a league-high 39 then 24 takeaways.

The biggest difference: their pass rush.

Must pressure QBs

Those Seattle Super Bowl teams were so deep with sack-and-pressure defensive linemen, Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril were reserves. Carroll and his coaches made hockey-like line changes of pass rushers, 10 deep, throughout games. By the fourth quarter, offensive lines were often exhausted trying to block fresh, rotated Seahawks defensive linemen. Seattle won close games late with its defense.

Those Legion of Boom Seahawks secondaries with Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman and Chancellor were at peak boom when they played press coverage at the line with their long, physical cornerbacks, Thomas patrolling in single-high safety coverage and Chancellor thumping foes underneath, closer to the line of scrimmage. Those defensive backs didn’t have to cover as long as Seattle’s did in 2021. Offenses didn’t run as many deep routes against Seattle back then because quarterbacks generally didn’t have the time for those longer-developing throws against the Seahawks’ deep, quality pass rushers.

For the second consecutive season, veteran end Carlos Dunlap was Seattle’s only proven, consistent pass rusher. He led the team with 8-1/2 sacks in 2021. Yet he mysteriously had games with 17, 13 and four snaps while the Seahawks sank out of playoff contention. Darrell Taylor was fast and dangerous off the edge in his first full season after missing his rookie year of 2020 injured. But this Seattle pass rush has been nowhere near as deep as previous units that forced far more turnovers. Or even incomplete passes on third downs.

For the second consecutive season, Norton’s unit could not get off the field. For the second year in a row the Seahawks played the most defensive snaps in the NFL: 70.6 plays per game. That meant Wilson and an offense that needed more chances to score got the least time with the ball (25:17 of the 60-minute game, on average) and ran the fewest plays in the league (956, 56.2 snaps per game).

Carroll said creating more turnovers on defense through having a better pass rush were two of the issues he talked with Allen about in their meeting last week. The coach called the takeaways and pressure on quarterbacks “obvious things” Seattle must improve to get back to the playoffs in 2022.

“The lack of turnovers we were able to create, usually those come when you’re ahead in games,” Carroll said. “And if you’re well ahead, the ball gets more exposed, and you get more turnovers and that feeds off itself.

“Also, you’ve got to create them. And you create them with pass rush. The quarterback is the No. 1 critical aspect of turning the football over.”

Re-hires, or new?

The new defensive coordinator must be willing to follow all that Carroll demands on defense. He must be able to produce a more consistent pass rush and thus more than 18 turnovers in a season.

And the Seahawks’ new coordinator must be willing to have the head coach in his defense’s business.

Bradley, Quinn and Richard have done it before. Would they, will they, do it again?

Of the three previous Seahawks defensive coordinators, Bradley appears the most available. Quinn, the former Falcons Super Bowl head coach, just finished his first season as the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys. His career track suggests he would only leave that job for another chance to be a head coach. The Broncos announced Tuesday night they had interviewed Quinn for their head job.

Richard is the defensive backs coach for the New Orleans Saints. He was out of football in 2020 after the Cowboys let him go as their DBs coach and defensive pass game coordinator.

Bradley just finished his first season as the Las Vegas Raiders’ defensive coordinator. Las Vegas owner Mark Davis must decide whether to retain interim coach Rich Bisaccia, who took over for fired Jon Gruden midseason and got the Raiders to 10-7 and into the playoffs.

If Las Vegas hires a new coach, that new coach is likely to bring in his own, new staff. Bradley could be free.

The lone apparent internal Seahawks candidate to replace Norton appears to be defensive line coach Clint Hurtt. He’s now the most senior member of the defensive staff. Carroll gave Hurtt the additional title of assistant head coach to get him to Seattle in 2017. He had been the Chicago Bears’ outside linebacker coach.

Hurtt, 43, is in the mold of Quinn: a younger D-line coach with a charisma and enthusiasm Seahawks players love. He relates personally with his players on matters in and out of football. He is often seen laughing with his linemen but also barking at them and intricately involved with them in practices and games.

And Hurtt knows what Carroll wants: a pass rush.

There is a truth to whomever Carroll hires as his fifth defensive coordinator for the Seahawks: If they players aren’t good enough, don’t play better more consistently, it won’t matter who the coaches are in 2022.

Carroll said he told his players that at their end-of-the-season meeting Jan. 10 before they headed into this offseason that they ultimately will control where the team goes next season.

“I told them ... I remember telling Kam and Sherm and those guys when they were in here years ago that in this room right now is the nucleus of a championship team that we’ll add to and we’ll bring in and support, but the guys in this room are the guys that are going to make this happen. That’s what it feels like,” Carroll said. “And we should be excited about it. I am.

“I’m excited about the chance of coming back and playing cleaner, sharper, more physical football than we did this year more consistently. With attending to the issues that we had, we should clean those things and we should be good.”