The Seahawks are setting up a second round of interviews with five head coach candidates that they interviewed last week. Most of them have something in common – aside from Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka they all work on the defensive side of the ball.
Here are the four defensive coordinators they’ll be speaking with again:
- Raheem Morris (Rams)
- Patrick Graham (Raiders)
- Dan Quinn (Cowboys)
- Ejiro Evero (Panthers)
In addition to those names, the team has also been reported to be interested in speaking with former Titans head coach Mike Vrabel as well as Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald.
There are almost certainly other names involved in the search that have not and will not be reported. Two highly-qualified potential candidates we haven’t heard anything about are Bill Belichick and Jim Harbaugh, also defense-first guys.
Add it all up and you’ve got a heavy defense-first field – although we shouldn’t assume that hot young offensive coordinators like Bobby Slowik and Ben Johnson are out of the mix yet – even though they aren’t among the second round interviewees.
However, it certainly looks like this team is going to replace Pete Carroll with another defense-first head coach – and that’s an indictment of Carroll’s last several years at the helm more than anything else.
There’s an argument that Seattle’s relatively loaded offensive skill players make an offensive hire more appealing. However, the team’s quickest path back to the playoffs is improving their defense.
Despite having the most-talented defensive unit since the breakup of the Legion of Boom, this season the results on that side of the ball were terribly disappointing. After a strong start they finished ranked No. 30 against the run, No. 25 in scoring defense and and No. 28 in defensive DVOA.
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