The Seattle Seahawks may have shocked the NFL world by winning nine games and returning to the postseason, but it was largely in spite of their defense. The Seahawks under Pete Carroll have always valued being solid defensively, but this side of the ball – especially when it came to defending the run – was a liability.
Seemingly every move this offseason has been focused on improving one of the league’s worst defenses. They’ll have to get better if they want to be considered a legitimate contender in the vein of San Francisco or Philadelphia. Fortunately, defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt seems positive the 12th Man will see considerable improvement
Seahawks defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt was on @SeattleSports with Michael Bumpus and Stacy Rost and had an interesting observation about Seattle’s defense and talk of how the scheme impacted things last year: pic.twitter.com/efw6ZbBgEb
— Bob Condotta (@bcondotta) May 13, 2023
Seattle brought linebacker Bobby Wagner and defensive lineman Jarran Reed back to the Emerald City, as well as signing free agent defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones away from Denver. They also spent considerable draft resources on acquiring defensive linemen, albeit later in the draft than many had expected…. or hoped they would.
But, as previously mentioned, the Seahawks are not going to go to where they want without significant improvement on this side of the ball. They have their sights set much higher than simply being the No. 7 seed, but it won’t matter if they can’t stop the run. Which is something the 49ers and Eagles excel at.