How will Seahawks’ OC Brian Schottenheimer and DC Ken Norton Jr. be similar?

New Seahawks coordinators Ken Norton Jr. and Brian Schottenheimer will have their own unique challenges this year as Seattle looks to make it back to the postseason. But the jobs these two men hold on their respective side of the ball have one key similarity.

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“The mode of communication goes through them,” Brock Huard explained during his Blue 42 segment of Brock and Salk on 710 ESPN Seattle. “That’s been well-documented with Schottenheimer. A year ago you had some different voices. You had Darrell Bevell who was a co-offensive coordinator and pass game guy, and Tom Cable who was your run game guy, and how do they intereact and how do they handle (Russell Wilson)? And oh, by the way, Carl Smith the QB coach is in the mix, too. You just had a lot of cooks in the kitchen.

“I think the same could be said in some ways defensively too. Kris Richard on the backend of that defense and Michael Barrow … and I think you bring in Ken Norton and it’s going to be one voice. It’s going to be Pete (Carroll), and it’s going to be Ken.”

The Seahawks parted ways with Bevell and Cable this past offseason, hiring Schottenheimer as the new offensive coordinator and Mike Solari as O-line coach. The team also moved Dave Canales to quarterbacks coach, though the assumption is Schottenheimer will oversee all facets of the offense. Norton – who is familiar with several Seattle players and had previously served as linebackers coach for Carroll – was hired to replace former defensive coordinator Kris Richard, and will share the same streamlined oversight.

“And you know what, with Pete Carroll’s back against the wall a little bit, with staff changes that I don’t think he loved making but he had to make, he brought in a guy that he was unbelievably comfortable with on that side of the ball,” Huard said of Norton.

“He was under Pete Carroll’s tutelage the whole time and he went away and he came back a little different guy, took some lumps. He walked into a room (in Seattle) that’s a little different from the one he left two years ago. You know what we’ve taken? Some lumps. I think there’s going to be a streamlined voice, both offensively and defensively, and I think that’s a welcome change.”