I love what Pete Carroll and Clint Hurtt are brewing up with this new Seahawks defense. It’s way different than what they ran last year. It’s faster, they attack the gaps harder, and it feels more multiple as it ebbs and flows between 3-4 and 4-3 variations.

On early downs, you might see something that resembles a 5-2 look with three big bodied men inside, and two book end linebacker/end types at the line of scrimmage (shades of the 3-4). More often, you see a nickel defense with a nose tackle and defensive tackle controlling the A and B gaps inside and two ends (shades of the old LOB 4-2-5 defensive front).

Sometimes you get variations of the 4-2-5 nickel where either both the ends are standing up, both have their hands in the dirt, or one is in a standup posture while the other guy is in the three point stance. Constantly out of this front, you see all kinds of designed twists and stunts and blitzes happen, and almost every guy on the defensive line seemingly has multiple roles that they are capable of playing.

Dre’Mont Jones is a great example of this. He listed as a defensive end, but he can be seen making plays in the backfield firing out of the nose tackle position lined up between guard and center. He can also do standup stuff like a rush linebacker. Functionally, he’s as close to a thing as Michael Bennett that Seattle has had since, well.. Michael Bennett.

The reason why these guys have so much thrown at them is that Clint Hurtt wants to attack the offensive line as much as possible, and the way he is coaching these guys up is to know and understand multiple positions, and be able to play them at a high enough level whenever called upon. He wants confusion to occur with the blockers. He wants to send blitzes and stunts, and he doesn’t want to stay in the same looks over and over again while doing it.

This is a very different scheme than last year when Hurtt had the defensive line trying to read in and react in a very predictable and passive way. That may have been more of the Vic Fangio thing he was trying to install, but it wasn’t working, and it was a really difficult thing to watch on Sundays.

This new thing? It feels like Carroll’s old defense if it had melded into more 3-4 stuff than they did back in the day.

In fact, you could say Uchenna Nwosu has often been playing the Cliff Avril rush end role, and also playing the Bruce Irvin like SAM linebacker. Paired with Boye Mafe as the other hybrid linebacker/end, Nwosu has seemed like an essential player who Seattle could ill afford to lose.

So when news broke Monday that his season was over with a pectoral injury, my first thought was “oh, shitters.”

Then, after I collected myself, I thought about Frank Clark a lot, and I was like “pretty, please go get him.”

Needless to say, I dig this return of Clark to Seattle. I’m not expecting him to be a star player again, and I don’t think I need him to be that. What I think he can be is an important, steady, veteran piece to this versatile defensive scheme.

For one, even if he’s not the same sack master that he once was, he will set a strong enough edge against the run whenever he’s on the field. If Seattle pairs him with Boye Mafe on run downs, I will feel confident about this defense continuing to be a top ten unit against the run.

Boye Mafe is an ascending talent on this defensive line, and may very well be on his way to becoming Seattle’s next star player there, but he needs a mate on run downs. I don’t think Darrell Taylor is steady enough against the run, and I feared Seattle trying to pair him with Mafe as soon as news broke about Nwosu’s injury. Rookie Derick Hall is an interesting player, but is still probably pretty raw. Frank Clark, however, has all kinds of seasoning.

He’s savvy, aggressive, strong, and mean. He can play linebacker, end, and he’s big enough to slide inside, if needed.

He will bring an attitude for others to play off of, and he also has great chemistry with the resurgent Jarran Reed. Whatever is needed to keep the steady rotation going, and to give offensive linemen more to think about, I think Clark is capable of providing.

Darrell Taylor is a perfectly fine player to have as a rush end on obvious pass rush downs, and should probably stay at that spot. Let him excel at getting sacks. Just let Frank be the one mostly setting the edge against the runners.

The player who might be the biggest beneficiary to Frank’s presence could actually be Derick Hall, in my mind. He’s built very similarly to Clark, and has a similar violent style about him. Frank Clark is exactly who I thought of when Seattle drafted him last Spring. Now, he gets to learn from him.

Perhaps the biggest reason why I love this move is that it didn’t involve any sort of splashy trade for a big named player on another team. I didn’t want to see Seattle trade DK Metcalf for Brian Burns, or send a high round pick to Washington for Chase Young.

I need to see Seattle stay firmly intrenched in a draft and develop mode of operation for a while longer. I need to see this team hit on one more draft class in 2024 to finish out this rebuild post Russell Wilson. Now is not the time to trade high picks away for other teams’ players. Now is the time to develop Boye Mafe and Derick Hall into stars, and draft one more kick ass group next year to finish this out correctly.

This team has spent two high second round picks on edge rushers in back to back years, so develop them. Bringing in Chase Young and paying him a boat load of money is practically giving up on the guys you just drafted.

Adding Frank Clark, however, is adding a veteran player good enough to play a factor in the rotation, who has a history here with Hurtt and Carroll, and a chemistry with Bobby Wagner and Reed, and he is not going to hinder what they just invested high picks in. When you factor that he didn’t cost any draft pick vital to fully building up this team right, while it might not be the sexiest move to make, it feels the smart move.

And let’s be honest about another thing.

Frank Clark is a bit of a wacky pit bull, right? Like, he might not be the guy you want to sneak up on in an alleyway after dark.

Well, the team just brought this pit bull back into the fold of pit bulls that include Jarran Reed, Devon Witherspoon, Jamal Adams, and Jordyn Brooks. That is a whole lotta nasty dawg on the field together. These are players perfectly willing to do a fella ugly whenever they got the ball in their hands.

Something tells me this could become a whole lotta something fun down the stretch when the schedule gets tougher. Frank Clark may not be the same player he was when he last played here in 2018, but you can’t discount just how tough and fiesty that dude probably still is.

Nah, I like this move a lot. I want to see this defense turn into something nasty and fearsome again.

When Carroll broke up the LOB by cutting Richard Sherman, and trading away Michael Bennett, he has spent years trying to recapture the essence of what those guys brought to the field along with Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas, and others. Now, it feels like it’s finally coming back. Frank Clark was there with them, and so was Bobby, and Jarran.

Welcome home, Frank Clark. I’m glad you’re back.

Go Hawks!