Clayton: Coaching maneuvers signal directions Seahawks are taking

Despite the Seahawks losing Ed Donatell to Minnesota, who was hired as Vikings defensive coordinator instead of taking a job as an assistant for Seattle, the Seahawks have come out of their defensive coaching shift well.

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They have Karl Scott as the new defensive pass coordinator, and the big news was getting former Bears DC Sean Desai as associate head coach. According to Jake Heaps of 710 ESPN Seattle’s Jake and Stacy, getting Desai wasn’t easy. Several teams wanted him.

Desai was up for defensive coordinator jobs so that made him popular for teams looking for someone to help out on defense. Whatever the Seahawks did, it was huge getting him.

Now the Seahawks have three different sets of eyes looking to fix the defense. Desai and Scott will work under Clint Hurrt as the defensive coordinator, and Desai and Hurrt have history working together in the Chicago Bears system that was run by Vic Fangio.

The Seahawks now have two new coaches who are 38 or younger, and that’s not a bad thing.

The other big news was the firing of offensive line coach Mike Solari. He will be replaced by Andy Dickerson, who came to Seattle last season as run game coordinator, joining offensive coordinator Shane Waldron in coming to the Seahawks from the Los Angeles Rams. That is a sign of total commitment to Waldron. It’s also a major push for Seattle to go more for the Rams’ style of offense.

Solari likes his linemen big and powerful, but the Super Bowl champion Rams like more athletic offensive linemen because of the movement they have at the line of scrimmage. This will play a big role in what the Seahawks do on the line this offseason. Seattle has three starters who are unrestricted free agents, and it’s not out of the question for the Seahawks to go after one of the Rams’ offensive linemen in free agency. Waldron and Dickerson know them, after all.

So far, it’s a good start to the Seahawks offseason.

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