For those that haven't heard it

By Kip Earlywine
New Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll has really been making the rounds on the radio lately. His latest was an interview with Mitch on KJR, where he discussed his early feelings on the state of the Seahawks defense. Its not a complete audit- he pretty much only talked about the defensive line and Aaron Curry, but he said some fairly revealing things and its worth a listen if any of you readers haven't heard this yet. I took notes and broke down some of the notable things he mentioned, which you can read by clicking "read more."

Of course, I should preface this by saying that this is just a radio interview, and it is the offseason after all. So caveats about Carroll perhaps being tricky or sending out smokescreens apply here, especially since we all know he's unofficially running the franchise. However, for what its worth, Carroll struck me as pretty earnest and surprisingly pointed in his evaluation. And to be brutally honest, if we had a simple-minded coach like Jim Mora or a gee-golly-avoid-specific-details-like-the-plague one like Mike Holmgren, I probably wouldn't bother analyzing a radio interview. But in this interview, I think our team has a coach in Pete Carroll who gives us a pretty good preview of where he's taking the Seahawks. He said quite a few things that perked my ears. Of course, actions speak louder than words, but right now words are pretty much all we have to go on. Here were some of the highlights for me:

Carroll claimed that in all his years at USC, offers from the NFL were rare and he only talked to one owner besides Paul Allen- he basically confessed to not being a hot commodity. Considering the Carroll-to-NFL hype that has surrounded USC for years, I found this information to be a little surprising, not to mention impressively honest.

Maybe its nothing big, but I noticed Carroll liked to say "this worked for me at USC," and never once drew from an experience he had with the Patriots or Jets.

He said he hadn't watched the offense yet, but put a very high stress on building the offensive line and finding running backs that fit the zone blocking system. He endorsed Matt Hasselbeck, saying "we need to build the game around him, that's why getting the running game going is so important." Later on he added: "the easiest formula is to get the run game going...a great deal of our pass attack comes off the running game." Carroll also mentioned that the league is "QB oriented," but overall, I think he made it pretty clear that the running game will be a major priority this offseason.

Carroll thought Curry looked "a little overwhelmed last year, particularly when Lofa wasn't around him to help him." That's good to hear because sloppy play and dirty hits really plagued Curry last year and he needs to be coached out of it. Carroll also makes a good point that not having Tatupu around to direct the defense really worked against Curry.

Despite only gaining 2.5 sacks, Carroll singled out Darryl Tapp, saying he "jumps off the film a little bit" and vaguely mentioned that he could help make things work "scheme wise." First, its good news that Carroll appreciates Tapp. Its easy to overlook a guy with 2.5 sacks, even though he was near the league lead in QB hits. The bit about how Tapp fit the defense scheme wise certainly seems to be hinting at Tapp's potential as a 3-4 elephant linebacker.

"We want speed and agility instead of size or girth." Pretty unambiguous. Carroll wants a fast type of defense like the one the Seahawks used up until a couple years ago.

Carroll praised Mebane and Redding. Mebane is really obvious, of course. I thought Redding played well enough last year (he beat double teams and stopped the run) that he'd be worth bringing back as a backup LDE or 3 tech DT. I guess we'll see, as he'll be a UFA and might get a pretty big payday from someone in what figures to be an extreme market thanks to a non-renewed collective bargaining agreement.

Carroll praised nearly every member of the starting defensive line except Lawrence Jackson. Given Jackson's ties to USC and Carroll, the silence is deafening. It could be an act of misdirection, but it seems Carroll may be more inclined to target a LDE (like Derrick Morgan) than a RDE in this draft after all.

Carroll on USC players: "I'm [very] surprised a lot of our guys got drafted in the 1st round... I've been around them for five years... I didn't think they were as good as other people did looking from the outside in." So much for Carroll overvaluing his own guys. That's good news if it means we avoid a massive first round reach for a USC alumni like Taylor Mays.

Carroll will gameplan, but Bradley will call plays. Well, crap. Bradley is pretty predictable with his blitzing and dropped linebackers into coverage too often (or just completely pulled them off the field for an extra corner). Hopefully Carroll can change that. Bradley didn't endear himself to me much last year when he finished the season alternating pass rushes of 3 and 6.

Finally, Carroll talked about the "elephant" DE/LB role and how it might help the team use Curry more in pass rushing situations. I like that he's trying to fit each player on the team to their strengths instead of forcing them to adapt to scheme, which was the mistake Ruskell/Mora/Bradley made last year. I'm hoping this means he also moves Mebane back to the 1 technique and drafts a 3 tech.