SEATTLE — One sentence spoken from the NFL combine in Indianapolis very well may have framed the Seahawks' path out of the despair of 2021. At the very least, it pinpointed a big reason they found themselves in such a mess in the first place.
Addressing reporters Wednesday for the first time since he fired defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. and revamped his coaching staff on that side of the ball, coach Pete Carroll dropped his pearl of insight in the midst of addressing the defensive changes he foresees for Seattle in 2022.
"I'll tell you, we've been a little bit arrogant," Carroll said.
It was a startling admission, one that bodes well for the Seahawks to rectify their biggest area of concern. At least, it does if Carroll is sincere in his acknowledgment that the Seahawks can no longer ride off the defensive glory of the Super Bowl years — and especially that some of the precepts of their powerhouse defense, fueled by the long-since-departed Legion of Boom, no longer hold up.
It's a big dose of humility for the man who built the Seahawks defense, masterminded it into a unit that will stand as one of the best in NFL history, and then watched it bully opponents into submission. To have such an epiphany at age 70, with decades of coaching success to his credit and a seemingly intractable belief in his systems, is even more remarkable.
But cold, hard reality is the mortal enemy of arrogance. The Seahawks smacked headfirst into the former in 2021, finishing with a 7-10 record that forced them into soul-searching mode. The defense under Norton's direction — but never far from Carroll's philosophical guidance — spent much of the past two seasons heading toward near-record amounts of yards yielded. The hallmark of Carroll — creating turnovers — stagnated in 2021. The pass rush was ineffectual.
And now Carroll is tacitly stating what had become increasingly apparent: Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor aren't walking through that door. Neither are Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril and prime Bobby Wagner.
In other words, the Seahawks can't expect to shut down teams just on the basis of having generational talent all over the field. There was no need to be fancy, because they were simply better than virtually any offense they faced.
Carroll believes the current Seahawks have the makings of a solid defensive unit. But it will take tweaks to the system, some new brains on his defensive staff to provide a fresh outlook and especially a willingness to be more variable and less wedded to his trademark Cover Three scheme.
"We've been a little bit arrogant over the years the way we play defense, because we've been able to do it," Carroll elaborated in Indy. "Just go ahead and play what we want to play. It's not that time right now. It's time to keep moving and keep growing."
There are many who won't believe it until they see it, that Carroll is simply too set in his ways to change now. But his decision to fire a friend such as Norton, with whom he has a long and close association, as well as passing-game coordinator Andre Curtis, indicates he's not just posturing.
And by bringing in former Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai to be associate head coach/defense with Hurtt — both of whom worked under Vic Fangio — shows that Carroll is amenable to another way of looking at defense.
Carroll went on to say they've been blending 3-4 and 4-3 concepts for a few years now, and that the Seahawks defense won't look as different as you'd think moving forward.
But Hurtt has already promised a more aggressive defensive style, which translates, among other things, to more blitzing and less pass coverage by the defensive front.
"I don't want to see big guys walking backwards," Hurtt said at his introductory news conference. "The last thing I want to be doing, I'm not going backwards. I want to be going forward."
The Seahawks can do that by recreating the synergy between the pass rush and pass coverage, with each element helping the other to thrive. Too often in recent years, it worked in the opposite fashion, which is why the Seahawks defense had the fewest take-aways in team history last season, and were on the field longer than any team in the NFL.
Hurtt hopes to change that, in part by making the Seahawks less predictable by using a variety of formations and coverage schemes. He will be tasked with, among other things, burnishing the pass rush and finding a better way to deploy safety Jamal Adams.
Will Carroll give him the freedom to do that? Hurtt is convinced he will.
"We are going into a transition right now," Hurtt said. "We are adjusting. And things are going to be changing."
Speaking to Dave Wyman and Bob Stelton on 710 ESPN, Hurtt said: "One of the very first comments (Carroll) made to me was like: 'Listen, I'm not hanging on to what we've done in the past. If things marry into what we want to do going forward, then we can do that.' But he said: 'I want to grow and evolve.' "
That doesn't sound like arrogance. It sounds like humility. And wisdom.
