Seattle Seahawks hoping pass rush can go 'Boom' again
By Eric D. Williams
FOX Sports NFC West Writer
The numbers of late for the Seattle Seahawks defensively are troubling and very un-Legion of Boom-like.
The last time Seattle cracked the top 10 in total defense was 2015. Seattle finished in the bottom third in the NFL in sacks in two of the past three seasons.
For defensive guru and coach Pete Carroll, it has been "all about the football" since he arrived in Seattle. However, the last time the Seahawks finished in the top five in takeaways was 2019 (32).
For Seattle to improve those numbers, Carroll believes the Seahawks must be more effective rushing the passer. Think Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett humming off the edge during Seattle's Super Bowl run in the 2013 season.
It's one of the reasons Carroll initiated a change to using more 3-4 defensive alignments this offseason, installing defensive line coach Clint Hurtt as the team's defensive coordinator and hiring Sean Desai from the Chicago Bears as Seattle's associate head coach on defense.
Both have experience under longtime NFL defensive mastermind Vic Fangio's 3-4 scheme. And while Carroll will not switch exclusively to Fangio's defense, he will meld elements of that scheme into Seattle's approach.
But no matter the changes to the scheme, Hurt believes the Seahawks must get back to playing with the relentless effort that helped Seattle create one of the top defenses in the NFL early in Carroll's tenure.
"You're going to be able to feel the energy of our players when you watch them play," Hurt told KJR radio in Seattle. "That is the goal. That's why we've got to practice the way we are practicing right now.
"When you watch us on TV, we want you to say, ‘Wow, those guys play fast. They play violent. If people cross the middle, they feel them. They play a punishing style of football.' That's what we want to get back to."
That shift includes using more speedy, stand-up rushers off the edge. The last time the Seattle Seahawks had a double-digit pass-rusher was Frank Clark, with 13.5 sacks in 2018.
"The idea is to really accent the edge rushers," Carroll said at the NFL Scouting Combine in February. "To try and get more out of those guys to accent what the guys are doing inside."
Carroll will look to recreate that dangerous pass rush of old with the addition of Uchenna Nwosu in free agency and another year of maturity for explosive playmaker Darrell Taylor.
A USC product and second-round pick of the Los Angeles Chargers in the 2018 draft, Nwosu was Seattle's top free-agent acquisition, signing a two-year, $19 million deal in March. Nwosu, 25, has just 15.5 career sacks in four NFL seasons but has improved his sack numbers every season.
Last season, playing in Chargers coach Brandon Staley's 3-4 scheme heavily borrowed from Fangio, Nwosu finished with five sacks and 17 quarterback hits.
"Everything is pretty much identical in a sense that sometimes you rush, sometimes you drop," Nwosu told reporters when asked about the transition to Seattle's defense. "But it's not too different from what I was doing with the Chargers in terms of my role. There might be different calls here and there, of course, but in terms of my job, it is pretty much similar."
Taylor was selected in the second round of the 2020 draft by the Seahawks. The Tennessee product missed his entire rookie season due to a lingering stress fracture injury suffered his final season in college. But he followed that with a productive season his second year, finishing second on the team with 6.5 sacks and 13 quarterback hits in 2021.
At 6-foot-4 and 267 pounds, like Nwosu, Taylor is a player who should adapt well to a hybrid role as an edge rusher/outside linebacker.
"He just brings a lot of energy, a lot of explosion," Nwosu said of his new teammate. "He's an athlete. He's so limber. He can really bend the edge. He's so fast. He's got great size, strong. I'm looking for a lot of big things from him this season."
Taylor also gushed about Nwosu joining him in Seattle.
"That dude, he is everything I hoped for in a pass-rusher and a coverage guy, and I think he's doing everything," Taylor said of Nwosu. "I'm learning from him. He's been in the NFL longer than me, so I learn from him every day on how to be a professional, how to play the game and how to look for clues and everything — to play fast and make plays every single day."
The Seahawks also have two young players who can help the rush in Boye Mafe, a second-rounder in this year's draft, and Alton Robinson, a fifth-round selection out of Syracuse in 2020.
That said, for Seattle to return as a dominant defense and compete for an NFC West title in the same division as the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, Carroll and Seahawks general manager John Schneider understand that creating a defense that gets after it is a must.
"It's just getting back to the aggressiveness, the youthfulness and the speed," Schneider told the NFL Network. "Defensively, we look pretty fast right now. The guys are playing fast and confident. … We knew we had a standard [when we got here] that we had to live up to right in our division in San Francisco. That rivalry has been on ever since we walked in the door.
"Obviously, you got the Rams. We're chasing Kyler Murray around. The competition level is very high in this division."
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter at @eric_d_williams.