Seahawks bringing back old school football is an indictment of the past

Did Jarran Reed mean to call out the previous Seahawks coaches? I doubt that, but his statement rings as clear as a bell. A really loud one, too, like at the Ballard Farmer's Market.

You may not have heard the latest, 12s, but it seems the Seattle Seahawks hired a new coaching staff this offseason. Weird, right? I mean, the defense was in such great shape over the past few years. They had the top-ranked defense in the league in... umm... oh yeah, 2015. Well, they were third in 2016 and 13th the next year. Then... oh, I think I see the problem.

The problem is that the Seahawks scoring defense never made the top ten in the past seven years. Once the terror of the league, the Hawks only ranked as high as 11th twice in that time frame, once in 2018 and again in 2021. Even though Seattle had their first losing season in a decade, that improved defense gave everyone hope.

The Seattle Seahawks look to return to "old school football"

That improvement didn't last long, as we all know. Seattle's scoring defense ranked 25th in the league in each of the past two seasons. That, more than anything else, is the biggest reason Pete Carroll was moved to an "advisory" role. It's funny how that turned out to be teaching at USC. Mike Macdonald led the league's nastiest defense, so it's no surprise that the Hawks tabbed him as their new guru.

So it should be no surprise that the Seahawks looked like a different team in both the preseason and their first game versus the Broncos. The defense was swarming and rarely missed a tackle. Veteran defensive lineman Jarran Reed said there was a major difference in the philosophy and mentality of the team now. As quoted by Bob Condotta on X:

I know that's pretty funky, so if you don't feel like expanding the tweet, here's the quote: “It’s been really good. I say it all the time. I feel like he brought back old-school football. No shots or anything, but I feel like that’s been missing for a little bit. We’re bringing the physicality back. We bring the mentality back of playing grown men football for all four quarters."

On the heels of Reed's comment comes this from Riq Woolen, regarding the improved tackling by the Hawks. Per Tim Weaver for The Sporting News, the third-year corner had this to say after Sunday's win: “We practice tackling every day... It’s a big emphasis around here. You can just tell it’s just natural to everybody. Everybody is just going in there, and we trying to get guys down. On Sunday it reflected how much tackling practice we’ve had. We’re just going to continue to build on it.”

Neither player intended to throw shade on Carroll or his staff, but facts are facts. We'll see if the defense continues its gritty play Sunday against the Patriots. But there's no reason to believe they won't be any less effective. After all, they're playing grown men's football now.

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