Seahawks only get 15 minutes to practice tackling
What's the root cause of the Seahawks defensive issues? Seaside Joe 1739
When discussing how the Seahawks have played defense over the last couple of games, K.J. Wright did not hold back in calling out mistakes made by former teammates Bobby Wagner, Quandre Diggs, Jamal Adams, and Darrell Taylor. Wright criticized Seattle’s lack of pre-snap and post-snap communication on plays that resulted in touchdowns against the 49ers and Cowboys, as well as the Seahawks’ well-known issue of poor tackling.
The answer every Seahawks fan wants to know: “How could a team coached by Pete Carroll and led on the field by Bobby Wagner suffer from poor communication and technique on defense?”
Wright praised the coaching of Ken Norton Jr., Seattle’s linebackers coach from 2010-2014 and defensive coordinator from 2018-2021. Which in a roundabout way does imply that Wright is not sold on the coaches in those current roles, Clint Hurtt and linebackers coach John Glenn. But that is me taking a leap from what K.J. Wright said and what it would seem to suggest given that he made it a point to say that Norton helped so much with communication and now he doesn’t recognize what the Seahawks defenders are doing on plays that lead to blown assignments.
Wright might not intend to point the finger at Hurtt or Glenn. However, he’s going to have fans questioning the coaching staff at this point, whether he wanted that to happen or not.
There are plenty of issues in the secondary that need to be addressed and the assistant coach there is Roy Anderson. I don’t want to pretend like I know how different the role is between being a safeties coach (as Anderson was with the Colts for four years and the 49ers for one year), an assistant defensive backs coach (as he was with the Vikings for three years prior to this season), but 2023 is Anderson’s first year as an NFL secondary coach and not an assistant. He came to Seattle a year after Karl Scott, his “boss” in Minnesota.
Scott is serving as the defensive passing game coordinator, while another one of Wright’s former teammates, DeShawn Shead, is an assistant DB/CB coach. (Neiko Thorpe and Will Tukuafu are other former Carroll players on the staff.)
But bad defense isn’t a squeaky wheel or a single leak. It’s a team effort.
The Seahawks rank fourth in the NFL in missed tackles, as Pro-Football-Reference has Seattle at 89 through 12 games. Only the Texans (100), Panthers (99), and Jets (93) have more.
Is poor tackling a result of effort or technique? Sometimes a player just gets unlucky or runs into a supremely talented opponent. When the Seahawks face the 49ers on Sunday, they’ll be facing offensive weapons who pride themselves on making others miss, like Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, and George Kittle.
But it’s hard to not associate consistently occuring problems with the one consistent that has existed with the Seahawks over the past seven years of subpar defense: Pete Carroll and his coaching staff.
This is not to say that the Seahawks must move on from Pete—we already went over that—it’s just a fact that the coach who prides himself on making sure that Seattle is “the best practicing team in football” is also leading a team that has consistently (as in year after year, not week after week) had a defense that nobody fears. Largely because the Seahawks have been a bad tackling teams for YEARS.
Have theories on why that is? Share them in the comments!
The Seahawks were among the best tackling teams in the NFL in 2020, but had the fourth-most in 2019 and were between average and below average in 2021 and 2022.
And since ranking third in points and fifth in yards allowed in 2016, the Seahawks have ranked:
2017 - 13th/11th
2018 - 11th/16th
2019 - 22nd/26th
2020 - 15th/22nd
2021 - 11th/28th
2022 - 25th/26th
2023 - 25th/23rd
Will the Seahawks tackling improve between now and the end of the season? Something else K.J. Wright said that stood out to me is that teams only get 15 minutes of individual periods, which is where you can work on tackling. But for the rest of practice and throughout the day, players must make “mental” tackles instead of real ones.
So the only time that Riq Woolen or Boye Mafe get to work on tackling is ON THE JOB. We’re watching them practice tackling on Sundays and it’s been less fun than fans going to training camp.
A lot less fun.
How do the Seahawks get better next season? Well, for one we can hope that this is going to get better as this young defense gets more experienced. The other would be to draft players and sign free agents with an emphasis on their tackling skills. I would like to say these last couple of weeks and ranking 25th in scoring defense on the season is an anomaly and nothing to be overly concerned about…
Clearly, I can’t say that.
All I can say is…WRAP HIM UP.
I remember the documentary/report on Pete's unique and "revolutionary" tackling technique taught in our camp and preseason during his early years. It was a wrap-around the waist and use your hip leverage to twist the player down style. Idk if they outlawed it, but I don't see it on the field much anymore from us.
Teaching tackling is actually easy - In Practice put the red band around the O players waist and insist they always rapup as close to the red band as possible - JR. High stuff! But it works! Getting this far through football programs and not having decent tackling techniques is Ridiculous! The main issue to me is the poor loose zone they always play in the middle of the field - We get ate alive every game there and they are not seeming to do anything to adjust!!! It is deplorable!