While the Seahawks offensive line is by far the team’s biggest liability, the defensive line should be one of their greatest assets in the first year under new head coach Mike Macdonald. While Macdonald will be calling the defensive plays at first, he’ll eventually be handing those duties over to the relatively unknown Aden Durde, who’s his defensive coordinator.
Durde spent the last three years as the defensive line coach for Dallas, where he frequently rotated and moved his pieces around. Fans should expect more of the same this season in Seattle, where he has several versatile, powerful pieces to use up front. Here’s what Durde had to say after yesterday’s OTAs practice about shifting his DL around, per Brady Henderson at ESPN:
“That’s what good defensive lines are. Obviously where I can from… Right now, it’s kind of hard because we can’t go full-gas, but it’s what are people good at? What are their individual roles? How do they fit into the picture? What down and distance would they be good at and where do they excel? I really believe up front, it’s about creative a way of playing that enhances peoples’ ability in certain situations. There’s a couple of guys that really just flourish in every situation. There’s other guys like [NT Johnathan Hankins] or those guys that flourish in certain situations, and then how do you rotate them? We’ve got so much versatility.”
We won’t know for sure what the depth chart looks like until September, but for now we are projecting Leonard Williams and rookie Byron Murphy II to start at defensive end, flanking Jarran Reed at nose tackle. Hankins should be considered the next man up there, with Myles Adams and Mike Morris backing up Williams and Murphy.
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