Seahawks: Ranking the five best defensive coordinators in team history
By Lee Vowell
The Seattle Seahawks have had quite a bit of success since the franchise played its first game in 1976 and a lot of this is due to defensive coordinators.
In the Seahawks most successful decade, the 2010s, the defense mostly led the way to great seasons. It isn’t coincidental that when Seattle turned to focus more on Russell Wilson and the offense the team became less successful. The 2010s were built on players like Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor and not Wilson.
Seattle traded Wilson in the 2022 offseason and clearly wants to get back to how it was in the early 2010s. That is, a team led by a great defense and a strong running game with a quarterback who can hopefully pull out a close win or five. Why? because, well…defense wins championships.
So who are the five best defensive coordinators in Seahawks history? Possibly the five that follow.
Seattle Seahawks five best defensive coordinators in franchise history
Number 5: Ray Rhodes, Seahawks DC from 2003 through 2015
Rhodes had a slightly odd career. he was a defensive backs coach for the 49ers for a long time from 1981 through 1991 and then jumped to the being the Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator. He then went back to San Francisco to be DC for a year and then was a head coach in the NFL (with the Eagles for four years and then the Packers for a year) for five seasons.
This means after waiting forever in NFL years to be a DC, he made the jump to head coach after being a DC for only three years. He was an OK head coach but not great and after 1999 would never be a head coach again.
For Seattle, he was the DC for five seasons. The first three were decent, especially 2005 when Seattle went to the franchise’s first Super Bowl. In 2005, the Seahawks ranked 7th in points allowed but 16th in yards given up. Seattle was the epitome of bend but don’t break but it worked well enough to get Seattle really close to a Super Bowl victory for the first time.