The hiring of Casey "Gus" Bradley as defensive coordinator in of itself isn't an important move. As far as Bradley goes, he has only three seasons worth of coaching experience in the NFL, and before that, he led the defense at North Dakota State University, a division II college. Even though we don't know much about him, it's likely head coach Jim Mora Jr. will be handling the bulk of the defensive playcalling anyway, so we already have an idea as to the style of defense.What is important about this hiring is it's the final piece of a defensive puzzle that's been ongoing in Seattle since Tim Ruskell was hired as general manager in 2005. Coming from Tampa Bay and Atlanta, Ruskell's expertise was finding talent to build a modified version of the cover-2 defense, the Tampa-2. It's what they invented during his time in Tampa Bay and what they ran in Atlanta, under Mora Jr. not so coincidentally.
So what's gone wrong? Why hasn't the defense played up to it's ability? We all know the answer to that--coaching. And it's not soon to be former defensive coordinator John Marshall's fault. Well it is, but only because Marshall isn't a Tampa-2 specialist.
To continue...
Marshall came to Seattle as linebackers coach under then defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes. When Ruskell came on board and planned to rebuild Seattle's defense in the visage of the great Buccaneers defense, hiring a new defensive staff suited to that would have been the logical move. But that didn't happen, and the defense has been suffering ever since.
If you look at the best cover-2 defenses in the league, you'll find a common denominator--pressure up front. Not pressure with the linebackers utilizing exotic blitzes but pressure with the front four lineman. (Think Warren Sapp, Simeon Rice, Dwight Freeney)
Instead, these past three seasons under Marshall, Seattle has been relying too much on using their linebackers to bring pressure, instead of using them sideline to sideline in coverage as we should be doing.
It's not that we've had trouble getting to the quarterback under Marshall. Despite constant complaints in this category from fans, Seattle's defense has sack totals of 41, 45 and 35 the past three seasons--all top 10 finishes. 2007's 45 sacks was good enough for second in the league.
But in order to achieve these totals, Seattle has been forced to blitz to bring pressure. The cover-2 is designed to take away the deep ball, and when you take away linebackers from coverage, that leaves the underneath stuff wide open. Linebacker Julian Peterson is one of the most athletic players in the league. He could probably play safety and yet we consistently take him out of coverage to blitz or line up at defensive end. Peterson should be our Derrick Brooks, not our Dwight Freeney. Actually, I take that back. He should be a little of both. He's a stud.
It's clear Marshall never understood how to properly run the system Ruskell wanted or utilize the players Ruskell gave him.
With Mora and Bradley in charge of the defense, two coaches with extensive backgrounds in the cover-2, Seattle may see a quick turnaround. It's been 11 years since a Seattle defense has been ranked in the top 15 in total defensive yards. But for the past three seasons, the talent has been there for a top 10 finish, and hopefully now the talent is there with the coaching staff.
Having said all that, we still need help with the rush. Patrick Kerney was never the answer. He's all hustle, and we need an effective speed rusher who can play three downs.
I like Northern Illinois defensive end Larry English and South Florida defensive end George Selvie in this year's draft. They're both undersized, but as he says all the time, size doesn't matter much to Ruskell. Either of these two would be an immediate upgrade to Darryl Tapp and would bring a vital ingredient to the defense.
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