Clint Hurtt, Players Provide Further Confirmation 2022 Seahawks Defense Will Look Very Different - And Yet Won't
On Tuesday, as the Seahawks continued their offseason organized team activities, we received further confirmation that their defense in 2022 is going to be different - for the players, at least. That makes sense given the promotion of Clint Hurtt to defensive coordinator, along with the hires of Sean Desai as assistant head coach (from the same Vic Fangio tree) and Karl Scott (from Nick Saban's coaching tree).
However, the detail given in Tuesday's OTA press conference still proves illuminating, even if - as Pete Carroll has stressed - the 2022 defense may not look that different to the naked eye come Week 1.
The language up front has evidently changed, especially for the outside linebacker types in the Seahawks’ 3-4 defense.
"Yeah, there's some carryover, but there's definitely a different language that we gotta speak and we gotta learn, you know?,” third-year linebacker Darrell Taylor told reporters after Tuesday's practice. “To be able to communicate with each other, you know? For each play, series, each down. So it's definitely different and I think we're doing a pretty good job at it. Just trying to learn every day and help each other learn it as well.”
There is carryover for Taylor and Seattle's veteran outside linebackers compared to other position groups, as the Seahawks have been running 3-4, bear-style looks at a high rate since 2020 along with Fangio-style concepts.
"Yeah, I have more carryover because I was playing the same spot,” Taylor revealed. “You know, SAM and LEO are pretty interchangeable.”
However, it sounds like the Seahawks have changed the names of their edge rushing pairing, or the two outside linebackers in the defense, as they have put more schematic variety on their players.
“The same positions are, you know, here,” Taylor continued discussing positional interchangeability. “Actually been asked to do more and I like it because it shows off the athleticism of the outside 'backers and everything. So it's exciting and it's definitely something that we're all excited about learning. You know, just being able to show off our talents in that way."
Dropping pass rushers into coverage is frustrating to see for fans, although it is a necessary schematic tool, especially when the Seahawks are in their base, 3-4 bear fronts. It’s more extensive pass coverage assignments that moving to a 3-4 will apply to the edge duo. Indeed, when Taylor was asked what more the new defense asks of the outside linebackers, he said it "just asks us to be in coverage a little bit more but other than that, it's pretty much the same.”
Taylor’s assessment of the new Seahawks’ defense touched on that new job responsibility of the edge rushers.
“It just allows our outside ‘backers to be more versatile, you know as far as run, pass, whatever it may be,” Taylor summarized. “And that's, you know, I think it's gonna help us and, you know, it's gonna be exciting. Just being able to have that and elevate it.”
This is likely a big reason why the language for the defense had to change. The overarching reason for Seattle’s move to a 3-4 in name as well as base nature appears to be about accenting the outside linebackers, having better personnel to run the 3-4 concepts, and defend the spread offensive concepts common around the league. The 4-3 defensive end-types employed by the Seahawks in the past did not allow for this.
Regarding the back seven, somewhat conflicting comments were made. Hurtt, when asked about free agent cornerback signing Artie Burns, began with an answer that implied Seattle’s coverage system is changed in 2022.
“Talking with Sean [Desai], what he's been impressed about with Artie is how much more comfortable Artie is in year 2 of the system,” Hurt said.
However, strong safety Ryan Neal’s answer to a question on if anything had changed in the Seahawks’ secondary schematically this year contradicted that takeaway.
"Nah, we're doing the same thing,” Neal said.
The 26-year-old veteran instead chose to focus on the defensive line and linebackers, stating the "biggest difference is the front seven."
“That's what I'm most excited about, because we've got some hungry, young dogs down there," Neal added. "And I think what the defense is going to do is put them in better positions to play the game that they know how to play. Last year we had a couple of issues but this year I can really see us like fixing it and letting, you know, people rush who supposed to rush, letting people cover who supposed to cover. And that's just really the tweak. You know what I mean? It's just a simple change.”
Part of Hurtt’s comments on where fourth-year cornerback Ugo Amadi has improved also gave detail on how the defensive backs still fit into the defensive front.
“He’s always been really good in his run fits,” Hurtt said of Amadi. “What's funny is, again playing at Oregon at the time Jim Leavitt was the D-coordinator there. You know Leavitt worked under Fangio, I believe it was in San Francisco if I'm not mistaken. So he’s, a lot of these things that we're doing is very similar, familiar to him schematically.”
Hurtt referencing Leavitt’s Fangio link, where Leavitt coached linebackers for the Fangio coordinated 49ers defense from 2011 to 2014, is highly noteworthy.
Seattle had to fit the run from more middle field open coverages in 2021 than they had done in past years, running them at a top five rate in the NFL according to both Sports Info Solutions and TruMedia. At times that required the nickel, Amadi, to be a highly important element in the run fit - arguably more important than his fit in middle field closed defenses like Cover 3 and Cover 1.
Additionally, the 2021 Seahawks implemented an aggressive, middle field open, matchup zone coverage called “CLEO” that they had never run under coach Pete Carroll before. This was highly similar to Fangio’s Cover 8 defense in the techniques it used but also the way it fitted up versus the run. Hurtt taking his Amadi answer into talking about his old mentor Fangio suggests there’s more to come in 2022.
In truth, we will discover just how different Seattle's '22 defense is when we see them in preseason action - and even then, that is likely to be more vanilla than real NFL football. However, as more and more players speak to the media, further details will emerge about an area the Seahawks may need to carry the team with an offense expected to struggle minus Russell Wilson.
