“Peace has cost you your strength. Victory has defeated you.”
So Tom Hardy’s Bane informed Patrick Bateman’s Batman in 2012’s ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ not long before breaking his back. The same could be said for the Seahawks defense over the last several years.
From 2012-2015 Seattle had the top defensive unit in the sport – ranking No. 1 in points allowed all four years and also top-five in DVOA. That proud group began to come apart beginning with the playoff loss to Carolina and it’s been a long fall since, but now the Seahawks officially have a below-average defense in all the ways that matter.
Head coach Pete Carroll offered up a telling quote yesterday at the 2022 NFL Combine that illustrates what’s happened, admitting that his team has been a bit arrogant over the years with the way they play defense.
Pete Carroll on changes to Seahawks defense: "We've been a little bit arrogant over the years (with) the way we do it. … It’s not that time (anymore)."
— Adam Jude (@A_Jude) March 2, 2022
This is exactly right and it’s very encouraging that Carroll is willing to admit it and change course.
For a long time, Seattle’s heavy cover 3 scheme was the envy of the entire league, but even with the most talented defensive personnel in football any scheme that becomes stale can be taken advantage of. It’s been several years since the Seahawks were elite in the talent department here, so it’s all the more important to embrace a necessary change. Losses to teams starting Kirk Cousins, Colt McCoy, Ben Roethlisberger and Taylor Heinicke at QB this past season is all the evidence you should need.
New defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt and associate head coach Sean Desai will be tasked with coming up with a gameplan every week that’s more aggressive and variable than the ones we’d come to expect from Ken Norton Jr. and Kris Richard before him.
To his credit, Norton started making some significant changes just after the Week 5 loss to the Rams – namely less zone, more varied looks (including two high safeties), and more disguising coverages. He didn’t go far enough though, which was part of the reason Seattle wound up ranked No. 21 in DVOA last year.
Carroll’s admission that his defense needed to change should be exciting for every fan who wants to see this team finally get back to performing at an elite level on this side of the ball.
If only Pete would have a similar revelation on offense and embrace a more analytics-friendly-let-Russell-Wilson-loose kind of attack then the Seahawks would really be cooking with gas.
