Seahawks defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt has a lot of questions to answer as he sets out to reinvigorate a unit that had gone stale after four frequently passive seasons spent under former DC Ken Norton Jr. – who was fired in January. Hurtt was officially named his replacement earlier this week.
One question that hasn’t gone away for any defensive coordinator who’s worked under Pete Carroll in Seattle is just how much autonomy they really have to run the defense as they see fit. Hurt was asked that on a Thursday appearance on the local ESPN radio station and said that Carroll has given him full autonomy.
“I think that’s way overblown what’s being said. Pete is the type of coach who’s going to let you coach. . . He’s given me full autonomy. . . obviously when you’re a coordinator and you have a head coach … you have somebody you have to answer to when there’s things that come up. That’s part of it, and that’s no issue for me. And I want to also lean on him for his expertise.”
Hurtt also says Carroll has always given the defensive staff full-rein.
“He’s given us full rein to go and put in a defense, run it and it’s not the things that we’ve always been running here for the last 11 or 12 years.”
There you have it.
