Latest Seahawks throwback: more base defense, less nickel. Can they play Rams that way?
Pete Carroll, 68 years young, is already known for bucking NFL trends and being old-school on offense.
It drives the analytic probabaility people nuts that Carroll’s Seahawks run the ball so much, more than anyone in the NFL last season, 1970s-era more. Never mind that Seattle’s offensive line has chronic problems pass protecting $140 million quarterback Russell Wilson without a running game to keep defenses honest.
Through four games this season, Carroll has become Coach Contrarian on defense, too.
These Seahawks are playing more base, 4-3 defense than they have in years, if not ever, in Carroll’s decade running the team.
What has Carroll seen from using more of Super Bowl-veteran linebackers Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright and Mychal Kendricks on the field together even in passing situations that he didn’t expect?
“No, it went the other way,” he said this week. “I was anticipating that it was going to be really good. I was really excited about this. Because of the overall package of each guy, so just aware of the game in a broad sense. They understand principles, approaches, technique, and philosophy—all of the stuff. They’re all play-makers. They’re all mobile, versatile athletes.
“To have those guys on the field. I like the power that they bring, the hitting that they bring, the magnitude in the stops that they make—as opposed to smaller guys that can be out there running around.
“You think of the game as, turned into all these little, fast guys. Maybe it has. Maybe we’re missing it.
“But, right now I like the way these guys are playing. I thought as they would develop together, the mental side of it; the chemistry and camaraderie of it, could give us something unique.”
It’s absolutely that. Seattle is using more base defense and less nickel than almost every team in the pass-a-rama NFL. Like the offense, the Seahawks’ defense is more 1970s than 2019 right now.
Has Carroll ever used this much base defense in his 44 years coaching defense?
“Back in San Francisco,” Carroll said.
Carroll was coach George Seifert’s defensive coordinator on the 1995 and ‘96 San Francisco 49ers. It was his final job before he became a head coach for the second time, with the New England Patriots in 1997.
“Predominantly the first year of the two years I was there, we played it a lot,” Carroll said. “We had some really good players and didn’t have to take guys off the field.”
Current Seahawks defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. was one of the linebackers Carroll kept on the field all the time sticking with so much base in San Francisco. Lee Woodall and Gary Plummer were others.
“(This season), it’s not the first time,” Carroll said.
Norton smiled Tuesday when told Carroll is being reminded this season of Norton playing for the 49ers in 1995.
“A lot of really good memories,” the Super Bowl-winning linebacker with both San Francisco and Dallas said. “A great group of guys. Just the speed, and the football IQ, the ability to match up with receivers and work combination routes was big back then.
“These guys that we have now are very similar. They love ball. They do a lot of studying. They have the ability to move and to adjust on the run, and they really work well together. That allows them to play a lot, and play at a high level.”
How much is “a lot” for this switch to more base?
The Seahawks were in nickel with five defensive backs and just two linebackers (with the strongside linebacker departing) about 70 percent of the time the previous three seasons. That’s when Seatle had standout Justin Coleman as the nickel. Coleman was so good at that he signed with Detroit in free agency this spring for $9 million per season, an NFL record for nickel backs.
After Coleman departed, the Seahawks re-signed Wright and Kendricks to return as their outside linebackers before giving Wagner the league’s richest inside-linebacker deal.. That’s when Carroll decided he wanted to go more base with those two Super Bowl veterans flanking Wagner and staying on the field more.
That meant switching Kendricks from weakside, where he filled in last year after Wright had knee surgery in August and where he started the Super Bowl two seasons ago for Philadelphia. Kendricks became the new strongside linebacker.
And now the previously 70-percent nickel, 30-percent base Seahawks have totally flipped that tendency. Kendricks and Wright are playing more than 80 percent of the defense’s plays this season.
Some thought there was no way the Seahawks would stay in base 4-3 as much last weekend when they faced Arizona’s Air Raid offense. They did: new nickel back Jamar Taylor played just 29 percent of the snaps again. Wright played 87 percent, Kendricks 84. And the Seahawks held prized rookie Kyler Murray, who had two 300-yard passing days in his first three NFL games, to just 206 net yards passing in a 27-10 road win over the Cardinals.
Seattle’s mostly base defense sacked Murray four times. Kendricks had two of those.
That has strengthened the belief among Carroll and his staff that base is best entering Thursday night’s NFC West showdown with the Los Angeles Rams.
“We just concentrate on us and figure out our best combination of people,” Norton said.
“Right now, our best combination of people as of now is the big, strong, fast, smart guys.”
But the Rams are unlike any offense Seattle has faced so far this season, in talent, scheme and history of prolific production against the Seahawks. Behind Todd Gurley’s rushing and receiving and Jared Goff throwing so many crossing routes and deep balls off them to wide-open receivers, usually off play-action passes, the Rams have won six of the last eight meetings with Seattle.
In winning the last three meetings the Rams have shredded Seattle’s defense for 42, 33 and 36 points.
Of course, that was when the Seahawks were playing more nickel and less base. What the Seahawks have done the last couple years against the Rams hasn’t worked.
In that regard more base 4-3, more of the three linebackers for every situation, may be even more justifiable Thursday night.
“We’re off to a pretty good start, and well see how it goes,” Carroll said. “We’ve got to have a lot of packages available this week. We’ve got all kinds of problems with these guys.
“So, we’ll see some of that, but...we’ll have to wait (and see).”
Rams coach and offensive whiz kid Sean McVay, who at 33 is less than half Carroll’s age, has noticed the Seahawks in more base 4-3 this season.
“When you look at the guys that they keep on the field with—Bobby, K.J., and Kendricks—those are three really versatile athletes that give them a lot of different things that they can activate,” McVay said Tuesday on a conference call with Seattle media. “I think they feel comfortable that they can play a lot of the nickel calls and still be stout up front.
“It’s definitely something that you notice. .... I think because of the confidence that they have in their personnel, they feel good about really being able to play that in most normal down and distance situations, no matter what the (offense’s) personnel grouping is.”
Wagner’s already convinced Seattle’s best chance to win on defense is with him, Wright and Kendricks on the field. That includes against the Rams, who scored 40 points last weekend against Tampa Bay yet lost by 15 points largely because of Goff’s four turnovers.
“You’ve got to have good linebackers (to do this), right? So, I think you get some good linebackers, it gives your coordinator confidence to call base,” Wagner said.
“Arizona ran a lot of ‘10 personnel’ (one running back, no tight ends, four wide receivers). And like you said, nobody expected us to be base versus ‘10.’ But we played it. We played fine. We held them to 10 points.
“So I think it just comes down to execution. It doesn’t matter what the personnel is on the field. As long as the people on the field are executing a defense can be successful.”
The Bengals, coached by 2018 Rams quarterback coach Zac Taylor, schemed a wide receiver onto Kendricks down the sideline for a touchdown. Wagner said both the Rams and Seahawks are watching that game film this week.
Seattle’s first three opponents—Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and New Orleans—succeeded in specifically targeting Kendricks down the field with faster receivers. So last weekend, the Seahawks blitzed Kendricks some more.
Wagner’s reasoning is like his coaches’: Why have a little nickel back blitzing when you can have big, strong, fast, smart Kendricks coming off the edge instead?
“One-hundred percent,” Wagner said. “You have a guy like that, when you see him blitzing, it’s not a nickel blitzing from the outside. It’s a big backer blitzing from the outside. A lot of times most offenses don’t account for the nickel, or have the running back picking up the nickel.
“So, our backers on running backs? We like our matchups.”
This story was originally published October 2, 2019 at 7:30 AM.
