Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll has a great quality for a human being: He is very loyal. That might not be good for a football coach, though. Carroll held on to Ken Norton, Jr. as defensive coordinator for far too long.
The same might be happening with Clint Hurtt. Hurtt's first year as an NFL DC was in 2022. But the Seahawks have not improved in 2023. In fact, the team gives up more points per game this year than last even though Jamal Adams has returned and Seattle drafted cornerback Devon Witherspoon.
Or heck, maybe the issue is Carroll himself as Hurtt seems to have some of the same tendencies as Norton. What is the through-line? In what suggestion that follows for a new Seattle DC, I offer a two-for.
No. 1 - Seattle Seahawks should hire Jerod Mayo to be the DC
Jerod Mayo has been a sought after coach in the NFL for several years but for some reason has not moved up the coaching food chain. Maybe that is partly because New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick's top assistants have failed as head coaches in the NFL. Also, maybe the NFL is starting to not think Belichick is the best coach ever without Tom Brady as his quarterback so his assistants look worse too.
But this would be unfair to Mayo who was a good player in the NFL due in large part that he could outthink his opponents. And while many might think Belichick isn't as good as once thought, he was never a good offensive coach but, like Pete Carroll, focused on defense. Mayo is still the inside linebackers coach for the Patriots after many years and he deserves his chance to move up.
While the Patriots are awful in 2023, their inside linebackers are not. Jahlani Tavai is graded as the fifth-best linebacker in the league, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Mack Wilson, Sr. is 16th, and Ja'Whaun Bentley is 32nd. All three are very good in run support and Tavai and Wilson are great in coverage, something the Seahawks linebackers are not.
No. 2 - Ben Bloom
Ben Bloom, like Hurtt prior to him becoming a DC, has mainly worked with defensive linemen. But he has been ultra-successful in his 14 seasons in the NFL. Due to his experience, there is very little that NFL offenses could show him that he would be unprepared for. Plus, he always gets his D-lines to be beasts against the run which has allowed the Browns secondary to flourish.
Bloom has also helped Myles Garrett become one of the best, if not the best, defensive lineman in the league. Bloom knows how to teach technique and get players to apply that technique in the best possible situations. This appears to differ completely from what the Seahawks are attempting to do which is possibly teach technique but then have no clue to how to scheme.
Cleveland is currently in the top half of the NFL in yards per rush, first in quarterback pressures, and 11th in missed tackles. While Cleveland's defense overall is good, and Bloom is not the DC, the basis of what Cleveland does starts with the defensive line that is led by Bloom.
Hopefully with Seattle, he could get the defense refocused and something akin to the Super Bowl years of 2013 and 2014 where the Seahawks could rush four and let the secondary focus on coverage. Again, with Bloom's overall experience, that should not be a problem.
No. 3 - Eric Washington
Washington is another defensive line coach and, like Bloom, has proved his worth to his team for a number of years. He has been with the Buffalo Bills since 2020 but has been in the NFL since 2008. He spent most of the 2010s as the defensive line coach for the Carolina Panthers before becoming their DC in 2018 and 2019.
While his seasons with Carolina were not overly successful, his units were mostly devoid of talent as well. With Buffalo, he has got his defensive line to be stout against the run and pressure quarterbacks. But one area he truly succeeds in is that he can incorporate free agent talent immediately into his designs.
Veteran players over the last few that have joined Buffalo and not digressed were Von Miller and Leonard Floyd. Miller appears to have remained one of the better well-rounded edge rushers in the league while he plays a bunch along the defensive line, though he was injured earlier in 2023 and won't return this year.
The Bills raw talent isn't fantastic along its defensive interior, but the group was 11th in yards per rush in 2022. In 2023, defensive tackle Ed Oliver has 6 sacks and 11 quarterback hits. Overall, the Bills have 41 sacks and 33 of those come from the front four in Buffalo.
No. 4 - Al Harris
Perhaps the next best thing to getting Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn back as the Seahawks DC is adding Harris. He has been the Cowboys defensive backs coach since 2020 and he was a secondary coach with the Kansas City Chiefs from 2013 through 2018. Harris would be a different kind of coach than Bloom and Washington, but Seattle might think of building the defense from back to front in much the same way they did in the Legion of Boom years.
Harris played in the NFL from 1998 through 2011 as a cornerback. There is nothing he has not seen at the professional level and this has allowed him to teach his players how to maximze their ability. Plus, watching Harris with his players on the sidelines of games it is clear the players love playing for him.
Dallas had 16 interceptions in 2022 and all came from the defensive backs. In 2023, the Cowboys have 13 picks with DaRon Bland leading the way with 8 and he has returned an incredible 5 of them for touchdowns. Bland was a fifth-round draft pick in 2022 so Harris has been able to mold him quickly into one of the best corners in the league.
Of course, a perfect scenario might be taking Dan Quinn from the Cowboys and having him be the Seahawks head coach in 2024 and Quinn adding Harris as his DC. Now if the Seahawks offense can just get a bit better and be consistently productive.