There’s no shortage of interesting matchups for the Seahawks and the Broncos’ Monday night showdown five days from now. One that deserves more attention is the battle of wits between Denver’s new coach Nathaniel Hackett and Pete Carroll, who’s about to turn 71 and has managed to outlast both the Legion of Boom and the Russell Wilson eras.
Carroll has strange ideas about running an offense, but he remains one of the most-respected defensive minds in football. Meanwhile, Hackett is considered a rising force on offense. He spent the last three seasons as Green Bay’s offensive coordinator. All he did there was the impossible by getting Aaron Rodgers to actually buy into an offense, leading to two-straight MVP awards and one of the NFL’s top scoring units. (The Packers led the league in points per game in 2020 and finished No. 10 in 2021).
In other words, Hackett knows his stuff on offense.
Asked what he’s seen from Seattle during the preseason, Hackett praised their defensive line as well as Jamal Adams – per Broncos Wire.
“Looking primarily at the defense up to this point, they are a very good defensive football team. They have got some huge human beings up front, with a lot of experience. We all know [DE] Shelby [Harris]. [DE] Shelby [Harris] is a really good player. [DT Al] Woods at the nose. He’s a dominant player up in the middle there. Then just even in the back end, you look at [No.] 33 [SS Jamal Adams], he’s a force. I’ve gone against him a couple times, he makes his presence known. So people are talking about that transition stuff, but from a defense perspective, they look really good right now. Then from an offensive standpoint, they still have a bunch of good players there that have made a lot of plays. So, it’s going to be a heck of a battle.”
As usual, Poona Ford flies under the radar but that three-man defensive front is going to be impossible to ignore on tape. The interior rotation is easily this team’s strongest and most-experienced defensive position group and the one we’re least-concerned about heading into the regular season.
As for Adams, a lot hangs on him having a Comeback Player of the Year kind of season. The key there is finding another coverage safety to allow Adams to roam around the tackle box. Seattle appears to have found one in veteran Josh Jones. His ability to cover deep with Quandre Diggs should open up Adams to drop down into a position to succeed.
While we’re expecting good things from No. 33 and the defense in general, there are all kinds of obstacles this unit may have to account for. Having two and a half linebackers on the roster is certainly something opponents like Hackett will notice and take advantage of. Inexperience at cornerback may also be a problem, no matter how talented both Tariq Woolen and Coby Bryant are or how good we expect them to become.
The one thing that might bring it all crashing down would be a weak pass rush. On paper Seattle doesn’t have any A-list pass rush threats, making their biggest free agent splash instead on Uchenna Nwosu – a strong all around defender but not remotely a pass-rush multiplier like a Von Miller or Chandler Jones.
Consistent pressure may have to be manufactured by defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt and associate head coach Sean Desai. If they can manage that, there’s no reason this shouldn’t be a top-10 defense, even if things are a bit choppy out of the gate.
