Seahawks' Defensive Coordinator Dan Quinn talks ball

Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn joined the Brock and Danny show yesterday and has some interesting things to say.

When asked about the rumors floating around that he'll be much more "aggressive" than his predecessor, this is what he had to say:

I think [that just comes from] an aggressive mindset. Sometimes you can say 'oh, is that all they'll do? Blitz?' but really that's just kind of the attitude, and the way that I coach too.

When we go through the whole program, and through the whole scheme evaluation when you start in the offseason, what are some of the strengths of what some of our guys can do really well? That aggressive mindset - maybe it does lead to more man-to-man, but not all the time. That's not to say 'they're going to blitz all the time' - not in that sense, but I couldn't be more thrilled to be working with this group and knowing that because of the talent of some of the players you have, you have the flexibility to maybe do more things.

On player versatility:

We've tried, maybe even for all the spots, to have some guys with variety in their positions. So in other words, can a defensive end play a defensive tackle? Can an outside linebacker play a defensive end in a rush situations? Can a safety or a corner move inside to play nickel?

So, I'd say it's not the overall - hey these ten guys are playing two different spots, but we have asked some guys to play more than one role, and most of it happens in your sub-package. You know, can he play on his feet? Can he set the edge? Can he add another rusher to our team?

And, I think that's one of those things that you're always kind of looking for. You go back to the [move] with Red, and you ask yourself, "how do his strengths fit in to what we want to do?" and it seemed, when we moved Red over there, because of his size and his length, he was able to play a base five-technique easier than he was able to play inside in those [sets].

On Base vs. Nickel

When we went through the self scout, it turned out to be almost 500 snaps in nickel, last year - out of maybe 1000 or 1100 snaps, so I'd say 40, somewhere in the high 40s in percentage in nickel.

Throughout a game, in things you don't count as situations - not two-minute, not short-yardage, not red-zone, that's kind of your core stuff.

Then, when teams come around and they want to play more wide open sets, for example, like New England, how they have been last few years, so with certain teams, you'll see that [nickel] number go higher and with other teams it'll be lower, but I'd say close to half, in terms of snaps in nickel.

Dan Quinn - Brock and Danny - Podcasts - MyNorthwest.com
New Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn joins "Brock and Danny" and talks about learning his personnel entering minicamp. He also discusses his coaching philosophy and gives a quick scouting report on some of his players.