RENTON — When it comes to assembling a football team, Pete Carroll has never been someone afraid to eschew conventional wisdom.
And 10 games into his second season as the Seattle Seahawks coach, Carroll seems to making all the right moves when it comes to building a defense. Heading into today’s game against Washington, it is clear that the defense assembled by Carroll and general manager John Schneider is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with.
Over the course of this season, Seattle’s defense has grown from a young group with potential into a legitimately good defense, perhaps even top-10-in-the-NFL good. And the Seahawks are getting that done by frequently breaking the mold.
The Seahawks’ cornerbacks (6-foot-4 Brandon Browner and 6-3 Richard Sherman) are too tall, one defensive end (6-4, 323-pound Red Bryant) is way too big and the other (6-3, 254-pound Chris Clemons) is too small. One safety (5-10, 202-pound Earl Thomas) looks more like a cornerback than do the actual cornerbacks and the other safety (6-3, 232-pound Kam Chancellor) is built like an outside linebacker.
Seattle’s jumbo-sized defensive line and extra-tall secondary weren’t necessarily part of a master plan Carroll had in mind. But as a coach who prides himself in being flexible and finding specific roles for players with specific talents, Carroll quickly took the pieces he had to work with, added more through the draft and free agency and built a pretty darned good, if not traditional-looking defense.
“Like I’ve always said, I like guys that have special, unique dimensions,” Carroll said. “Sometimes the dimensions are real big and we’ve utilized that. It’s a matter of utilizing their strengths and we saw that in Red and we saw it in (defensive tackle Brandon Mebane) and we tried to continue to stay that way.
“So we’re playing with it, but that doesn’t mean we’ll always be that way. This is just the way we are now because of the guys we can attract.”
And guess what? It appears to be working pretty darn well so far.
The Seahawks currently rank in the top half of the league in nearly every important defensive category, including total defense (11th), scoring defense (14th), rush defense (8th) and pass defense (15th).
Carroll’s unique players are a big part of that success. Bryant, who the coaches converted from tackle to end last season, is one of the biggest (pun intended) reasons why the Seahawks have one of the league’s best run defenses, allowing just 3.5 yards per carry. Chancellor, who has a team-high three interceptions, has teamed with Thomas to form one of the league’s best young safety duos.
Browner, who spent the past four years in the Canadian Football League, has recovered from a tough start to the season to play very well of late. He and Sherman, a fifth-round pick who was forced into the starting lineup because of injuries, have suddenly made life very difficult for receivers matching up against the Seahawks.
In the four games Browner and Sherman have started together, opponents are completing 57 percent of their passes and averaging 207.5 passing yards, numbers that both fall well below the league average.
“It’s a different look for receivers,” Sherman said of his and Browner’s size. “A lot of times it’s something they haven’t seen before. I don’t think there’s a combination bigger than us out there. It’s just something they have to adjust to in-game. Any time you get your hands on receivers and disrupt their routes and knock their timing off, it’s a little different for them. … It’s been working these past couple of weeks and we hope to keep it going.”
The quick growth of this quirky defense really shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. It’s easy sometimes to forget amongst all of Carroll’s optimism, his enthusiasm and his fist-pumps, that the guy is a coach with very legitimate defensive credentials.
Carroll became a superstar during his nine-year run at USC, but for most of his career prior to that, he made his living building defenses. His NFL career started in 1984 as a defensive backs coach in Buffalo, and he went on to be a defensive coordinator for the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers. One of the first things Carroll did when he took over in Seattle was work with defensive coordinator Gus Bradley on making the defense better, particularly against the run.
“It’s unique,” Bradley said of his defense’s size up front. “Our philosophy — right from the start, right when Pete got here — was get big up front. Make sure we do everything we can to stop the run, shore up things, then take it from there.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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