Pete Carroll Hits Home Run Adding Sean Desai, Karl Scott to Seahawks' Coaching Staff
Earlier this week, coach Pete Carroll's efforts to rebuild his defensive coaching staff appeared to hit a major snag.
Carroll's close friend and 31-year NFL assistant Ed Donatell, who he had previously coached with at the University of the Pacific as well as the New York Jets, received an offer to become the Vikings defensive coordinator. Expected to take that job, he wouldn't be joining the Seahawks staff as a senior consultant after all.
With Donatell out of the picture, Carroll shifted his recruiting efforts back towards trying to persuade former Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai to accept a position on his staff. Former Vikings defensive backs coach Karl Scott remained on the radar as well, but for some fans and media members, doubts started to creep in.
Carroll is going to take big swings at several interesting names from other teams and ultimately come up empty, isn't he?
Luckily, while the team has yet to officially announce either hire, Carroll smacked the ball out of the park by reportedly landing Desai and Scott as associate head coach and passing game coordinator respectively. The pair will now team up with defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt, who was recently elevated from defensive line coach to succeed Ken Norton Jr., giving the Seahawks a fascinating trio of upstart coaches all under the age of 43.
Beloved by players and respected by everyone in the building, Carroll wasn't about to let Hurtt get away when he emerged as a reported candidate for the University of Miami's defensive coordinator role.
While he has never been a defensive coordinator at any level previously, Hurtt's presence proved to be instrumental to Seattle's success defending the run in recent seasons. Anchored by a stout defensive line featuring two former undrafted players in defensive tackles Poona Ford and Bryan Mone, the team finished second in yards per carry allowed (3.8) in 2021 and fourth in the same category (3.9) in 2020.
But given Hurtt's lack of experience, coupled with the fact the Seahawks finished outside the top 10 in scoring defense once again during a 7-10 season, Carroll knew he needed to pursue experienced coaches with secondary backgrounds to help his disciple succeed. While he couldn't quite reel in Donatell, he managed to check off that box by convincing Desai and Scott to bring their talents to the Pacific Northwest.
All along, the 38-year old Desai has been Seattle's coveted target. Though he never has worked under Carroll previously, he spent the past nine seasons in Chicago ascending the coaching ladder from defensive quality control coach to safeties coach to eventually becoming the first Indian-American defensive coordinator in NFL history. He managed to achieve this feat while surviving three head coaching changes in the Windy City.
Though the Bears finished in the bottom third of the NFL in scoring defense and turnovers created in Desai's lone season as defensive play caller, they finished sixth in total yardage allowed, third in passing yards allowed, first in pressure percentage, and fourth in sacks. Making those last two numbers all the more remarkable, he didn't have star pass rusher Khalil Mack or defensive tackle Akiem Hicks available for a combined 18 games.
How did Desai accomplish this? Still having a healthy Robert Quinn available certainly helped, but he did a fantastic job of incorporating stunts and blitz packages to maximize on his remaining personnel and turn up the heat on opposing signal callers, which in turn helped take pressure off of a secondary that dealt with several injuries of their own during the season.
Interestingly, the Bears managed to rank in the top five in sacks and pressure rate while playing extensive two-deep safety coverages, as Desai's prior connections with esteemed defensive guru Vic Fangio were evident schematically. Per TruMedia, the Bears dialed up Cover 6 on 18.6 percent of their snaps, second behind only Fangio's Broncos. They also ran Cover 2 and Cover 4 "middle of field open" coverages on nearly 10 percent of their defensive snaps.
Throughout the process of rebuilding his staff, Carroll's goal all along has been to hire coaches who could help the Seahawks become more aggressive defensively and improve their pass rushing production while sticking to his principles of stopping the run and not giving up explosive pass plays. Albeit with a smaller sample size, Desai managed to check off many of those boxes with a less talented, banged up unit in Chicago.
As for Scott's fit, he entered the league with Minnesota a year ago at the recommendation of legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban, who had the Houston, Texas native on his staff each of the previous three seasons. During his time with the Crimson Tide, he oversaw the development of multiple future NFL stars, including Cowboys All-Pro cornerback Trevon Diggs and Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain Jr.
Like Desai, along with being in expert in coaching technique to defensive backs, Scott should be able to bring in some new wrinkles scheme-wise after spending time on Saban's staff. Among Alabama's staple coverages, they played extensive Cover 7, also known as "quarters man match" coverage with two deep safeties. This scheme has many similarities to the "CLEO" coverages Seattle unveiled last season, as covered by our own Matty F. Brown.
At the end of the day, as long as he's roaming the sideline and energetically chomping on his gum, the Seahawks will still be playing Carroll's scheme. But through these ambitious hires from outside of the organization, he's made it clear he's willing to embrace new ideas and concepts to get the most out of his personnel and return his team to the ranks of the NFL's elite defenses. It will be interesting to see how this group meshes together when they first hit the field in May.
