Bruce Irvin talks his expected Seahawks role. How it may affect Jordyn Brooks, K.J. Wright
Bruce Irvin was laughing and smiling through the screen. He was saying hi to familiar faces.
He was noticeably comfortable, back in what he calls a perfect situation for him at this later point in a career that many thought wasn’t going to happen.
At age 32, he acknowledges he’s matured and absolutely appreciative since his Super Bowl days with Seattle last decade. The linebacker and pass rusher is noticeably more self-assured—about his role and place in his second go-round with the Seahawks.
And about his life.
“In one word, I would say: refreshed,” the linebacker and edge rusher said Tuesday on a Zoom online call from his home in Atlanta.
It’s been two months of coronavirus pandemic lockdown since Irvin signed back with Seattle for the 2020 season, after a career-high 8 1/2 sacks last year in his only year with Carolina. The Seahawks are giving him $5 million guaranteed for this year. That speaks to how desperate they are to improve their pass rush.
And it speaks to how much coach Pete Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. love the supposedly raw, wayward project they selected 13th overall in the 2012 NFL draft.
The Seahawks got trashed nationally for that pick eight years ago, the start of a draft that also gave Seattle Bobby Wagner and Russell Wilson but was rated as a failure by most everyone. Analysts said Irvin was an over-hyped, one-trick edge pass rusher out of West Virginia University, with no future as an every-down linebacker in the NFL.
Norton, then Seattle’s linebackers coach, made Irvin exactly that, while also developing Wagner into a Seahawks All-Pro and K.J. Wright into a Pro Bowl veteran linebacker.
One Seahawks Super Bowl ring, a second Super Bowl start, seven years, three other teams and $42.4 million in career earnings later, the former troubled Atlanta kid who has said he was “supposed to be in jail or dead” by now feels the same love for Carroll and Norton.
“I would be here damn near three hours if I had to tell you (all of) that,” Irvin said, proudly. “Especially Norton.
“You know, Norton’s a guy I consider not only as my coach but as a father figure. The guy, you know, took me to Oakland with him (for the 2016 season, after Norton became the Raiders’ defensive coordinator), and also he played a major role in bringing me back to Seattle.
“And Pete, and John (Schneider, Seattle general manager who also drafted him eight years ago), I always thank them giving me my first opportunity coming out. Because you guys know, I had MAJOR red flags.”
He laughed.
“They stuck their nose out there for me, and they took a chance,” he said.
“You know, it came back around full circle. They gave me another opportunity. Words can’t explain how much I appreciate it.”
That’s why he’s back with the Seahawks.
That, and the fact Jadeveon Clowney remains unsigned and only Miami had a less-productive pass rush in the NFL than Seattle in 2019.
“I felt like going back home—Seattle, I consider my home, my football home, at least—that was the best thing that could happen to me. Especially in year nine,” Irvin said.
He added he feels “as old as hell” knowing he will turn 33 in November.
Irvin said a few other teams inquired, but none came close to competing with Seattle to sign him this offseason.
After he watched on television as the Seahawks beat the Eagles in the wild-card round of the NFC playoffs in January, long after his season had effectively ended in Carolina, Irvin texted Wagner on Seattle’s flight home.
“Damn,” Irvin told Wagner that night, “I was I was on that plane with y’all.”
Now, he’ll be rolling’ with them again.
“I couldn’t ask for a better situation,” Irvin said.
When he was last in a Seahawks uniform, in February 2015, Irvin and most defensive players were on their side of the locker room in Glendale, Ariz., screaming mad at coaches and seemingly everyone. Minutes earlier, New England’s Malcolm Butler had intercepted Russell Wilson’s pass at the 1-yard line in the final seconds of Super Bowl 49. That infamous play call and result denied Irvin and the Seahawks’ defense immortality in the sport as one of the best units in history backed by consecutive Super Bowl victories.
That was six seasons ago. Irvin was a strongside linebacker in Carroll’s and Norton’s 4-3 defense then. Since he left Seattle, first to Oakland in 2016 on a $37 million free-agent deal, then to Atlanta for 2018 and Carolina last year, he’s progressively become less a linebacker. He’s been more an end pass rusher on the line in longer-yardage situations. The Panthers played so much nickel defense while losing 11 games last season, Irvin was almost exclusively a defensive end. He got his career high in sacks.
He said he is a more “polished” player now, that the game feels slower to him because he understands its nuances and tricks more.
What have Carroll and Norton told Irvin his role will be in 2020, especially with the Seahawks drafting Jordyn Brooks in the first round to play linebacker on the outside and Wagner still in his All-Pro spot in the middle?
“Pretty much the same (as last Seahawks time),” Irvin said. “First and second down, SAM (strongside linebacker). And third down, defensive end.”
So he will work at linebacker. Time, through training camp and in-season practices and games, will tell how much he plays there.
That’s what Carroll’s system is all about: all competition, all the time.
Brooks can play at strongside, and Schneider has said it’s possible the top rookie will get time in the 31-year-old Wright’s weakside spot. This is the final year of Wright’s contract. He’s the longest-tenured Seahawk.
Cody Barton started games late last season at strongside linebacker after Mychal Kendricks got hurt. The Seahawks have left Kendricks unsigned in free agency this offseason.
Irvin’s not getting guaranteed $5 million to play strongside linebacker on first downs. He’s here to pressure and sack quarterbacks. That’s where he’s likely to get the most time, and, the Seahawks hope, most impact.
The Seahawks have been intending to have Clowney, the three-time Pro Bowl end, with Irvin to pressure quarterbacks this season. They’ve set improving the pass rush as their top offseason priority; it is the key to whether this perennial playoff team gets multiple home playoff games for the first time since their last Super Bowl season of 2014—and thus whether it gets back to the Super Bowl.
But Clowney is waiting for team facilities to reopen coming out of the pandemic, to get physical exams with other teams to leverage the multiyear offer he rejected from Seattle in March.
With or without Clowney, Irvin thinks unheralded returning team sack leader Rasheem Green, second-year man L.J. Collier plus rookie second-round pick Darrell Taylor and fifth-round choice Alton Robinson are going to be better than you may think they will in 2020.
“I’m going to work my ass off to lead these boys...,” Irvin said.
“I think we are going to be better than a lot of people think we are.”
This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 1:29 PM.
