Quote:Of course you have to look at how long each of Seattle's 11 defensive starters have been in the NFL, what roster and depth chart changes were made early on, and who has been in Seattle the longest. Then there are position coaches: Did Gus Bradley work with the same defensive line, linebackers, and defensive back coaches all of the years he held that job in Seattle? If you don't take all of this information into account, the numbers do not mean much.
Earl Thomas is only player, who started every game in last 4 seasons. Brandon Mebane missed 4 games in 2010 but after that he also started every game till today. Other than that, our defense (and offense also) changed a lot between 2010 and 2012.
Carroll's first job was to improve pass rush, so we traded for Clemons and also signed Raheem Brock as a situational pass rusher. They were both having good two years and combined for more than 20 sacks both in 2010 and 2011. In 2012 we drafted Bruce Irvin, who has shown some flashes, but was very inconsistent, so Clemons was our only reliable pass rusher. As you probably know, we also changed position of Red Bryant from DT to run stopping DE to fit Carroll's scheme. Unfortunately we lost both Bryant and Mebane because of the injuries in second half of the 2010 season and we had some really bad losses (more on that later).
In 2010 we had veteran players like Marcus Trufant, Kelly Jennings and Lawyer Milloy starting in secondary alongside Thomas. They were all too old, slow and small to play a defense we play now. Kam Chancellor get some playing time in 2010 and he take over as starter in 2011. Same year we also signed Brandon Browner and in week 6 Richard Sherman became starter after injuries to Trufant and Walter Thurmond. That's when Legion of boom was "born". Pass defense improved and we won 5 games (with 3 close losses) in second half of the season after starting 2-6.
After fixing secondary and D-Line (on most parts, because we still didn't have consistent pass rush) it was time to change LB core. K.J. Wright take over for a bust named Aaron Curry after 4 games in 2011 and a year later we drafted Bobby Wagner to replace David Hawthorne at MLB. It wasn't until last season (when Gus had already gone) when we added more pass rushers (Avril and Bennett) to complete the defense, but I think Wagner was the last missing piece.
About coaching staff: in 2011 DL coach Dan Quinn accepts a DC job at Florida and after two seasons he returned last year to replace Bradley as DC. Todd Wash was DL coach in 2011-12 and he was replaced with Travis Jones last season. Jerry Gray was DB coach in 2010. After he left to Texas in 2011, his assistant coach Kris Richard (I think he's one of the best young coaches in the league and it will be hard to keep him for a long time) take over. Ken Norton Jr. is LB coach from 2010.
Yes, we won 7 games in 2010 and went into the playoffs because of the bad NFC West and then won against the defending champions Saints (to silence the critics we shouldn't be there), but we also lost all 9 games that year for more than 15 points, so I know how it feels. Remember we also had two bad seasons before that when we only won combined 9 games, 4 of them against the Rams, who were one of the worst teams in the league at that time.
I don't know your team good enough, but I think the main difference between the 2010 Seahawks and 2013 (and start of 2014) Jaguars is we had more and better veteran players who did get a job done (But they were not good enough to take us where Carroll wanted and where we finally get last season, so they keep on changing the roster almost every week for the next 2-3 years.) until younger players learn the system and finally win their starting job. We are known for »redshirting« some players (especially in last 2 seasons), but Carroll is also not afraid to put a rookie into the game if he's the best player in that position (just like Russell Wilson win the job over Matt Flynn and Tarvaris Jackson).
I know it's hard to lose, but I agree with the OP that you should give Gus at least one more offseason. There are some pieces already in place but you still need more talent before we can fairly judge job Gus and your GM are doing in building the team. And all the rookies and 2nd year players also need to gain experience on the field before we can say anything about coaching. Coaches can coach them good, but rookies will still make rookie mistakes. Of course you can criticise Gus for bad gameday decisions, but don't forget he's also a rookie HC. It's important he learns from his mistakes so he won't repeat them when the Jags are good enough to compete for playoffs. I strongly believe Gus has a potential to be a great HC, but he's not there yet.
