Perhaps the biggest staple of the Pete Carroll era for the Seattle Seahawks has been their defense.
Built upon strong linebacker play and elite, long defensive backs, made famous by the Legion of Boom, the Seahawks pride themselves on thumping opposing offenses all over the field.
2019 was a very different story. The absence of the LOB was felt in a major way, and the team’s complete lack of a pass rush, over reliance on their 4-3 base defense and inferior play in the secondary led to perhaps the worst defensive season in recent Seahawks history.
Carroll is more than aware of the deficiencies put forward by this unit last year, and he is not afraid to report that changes are coming.
“We were not consistent,” Carroll said on Monday. “Too many explosive plays of various natures. For the most part, we had problems on the edge. We had containment issues. We found that the offenses really put the ball on the perimeter against us a lot. That does challenge us in some ways. You’ll see some things be adjusted in the course of the offseason for that. Just the style of offense that we were up against was a little bit different than it’s been.”
Carroll wouldn’t confirm anything specifically, of course, saying folks will have to wait and see – particularly when asked about Seattle’s reliance on the base 4-3 defense.
“Some of it will be going back to things we’ve done, some of the things will be moving forward,” Carroll continued. “I’m really excited to go about it. It’s difficult to adjust some things in the middle of the year. It was interesting, we played a lot of base defense versus three wide receivers and we didn’t see very much of it. It kind of went away. That was an interesting turn. We weren’t sure how that was going to turn out.”
Carroll’s base defense forced his linebacker group to play more pass coverage, which is not their strength. It often led to team’s using short, quick passing attacks that proved extremely successful.
Carroll didn’t specify that any of the incoming changes will involve his coaching staff, but after such an ugly season on the defensive side of the ball it’s fair to assume some of the defensive coaches, including defensive coordinator Ken Norton, Jr, are on the hot seat.
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