Seahawks fans who are looking for a silver lining in what’s been a dark and difficult offseason should probably focus their attention on defense. At the moment, their roster doesn’t have a sure-thing at quarterback, left tackle or right tackle. That situation will likely change over the next few weeks but for now the most promising things about this squad are on the other side of the ball.
The loss of Bobby Wagner at middle linebacker is hard to stomach. However, Cody Barton looked more-than-ready to take over and start at a respectable level late in 2021. More importantly, this defense is undergoing a change in philosophy under new defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt. Coach Pete Carroll has admitted that his team has been a little bit arrogant over the years on defense and realized a change was needed.
A defensive line guy by nature, Hurtt will be bringing a more aggressive approach – at least compared with that of former defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr., whose scheme had become too passive and predictable.
One guy who’s a big fan of the new D is also one of the new faces that came over in the Russell Wilson trade. Shelby Harris is perhaps the NFL’s most underrated defensive lineman and our favorite part of the deal. Harris spoke with members of Seattle’s media for the first time yesterday and he gushed at length about both Hurtt and his defense.
Harris says that Hurtt came highly-recommended by former teammate Teddy Bridgewater:
“I’m just excited to work with coach Hurtt. I’ve heard so much about him, I remember that Teddy Bridgewater was the first person to text me, he was like, ‘You’re going to love coach Hurtt, he is the man.'”
Here’s how he described the defense.
” I’m a big believer in this scheme. It creates a lot of turnovers, creates a lot of havoc, and is very easy to scheme and confuse quarterbacks. I just think that it fits me very well, obviously. I’ve always believed in 3-4’s—I just think that 3-4’s are better run stoppers and in the division that we play in, with the Rams, Cardinals, and 49ers, the Rams and 49ers are run-heavy teams and this kind of neutralizes that a little bit. This defense, you guys will love it, you guys will see that it is a mixture of rush and coverage working together. You are going to get a lot of zones out of it, but once everybody gets it, it’s going to be hard to stop.”
Exciting.
