Joe Whitt Jr., Seahawks’ 3rd outside defensive-coordinator candidate, has Dan Quinn ties

Pete Carroll appears to be exploring extended branches of his coaching tree in search of the Seahawks’ new defensive coordinator.

Specifically, the Dan Quinn branch.

One day after Carroll officially fired Ken Norton Jr. as his top defensive coach, Seattle has requested to interview Dallas Cowboys defensive passing game coordinator and secondary coach Joe Whitt Jr., NFL Network reported Wednesday evening.

Why would Carroll want to do that?

Quinn.

Perhaps in the best world Carroll could imagine, Quinn would leave his job as the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator after one season in Dallas and return to the Seahawks. Quinn won Super Bowl 48 on Seattle’s staff and was Carroll’s defensive coordinator again when the Seahawks played in Super Bowl 49. That was at the end of the 2013 and ‘14 seasons.

But Quinn is likely to leave Dallas for his second head-coaching job before he takes a lateral move as a coordinator for another team. The Minnesota Vikings and Denver Broncos have interviewed Quinn for their head-coaching vacancies. The New York Giants are reportedly requesting to interview him for their job, too.

Quinn hired Whitt, 43, to be Atlanta’s defensive passing game coordinator and secondary coach for the 2020 season. That ultimately became Quinn’s final one as head coach of the Falcons.

Quinn then became the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator before this season, for head man Mike McCarthy. McCarthy hired Whitt onto Quinn’s defensive staff in Dallas. Whitt spent 11 years coaching under McCarthy in Green Bay. That included Whitt’s nine seasons as the Packers’ cornerbacks coach, 2009-17.

Whitt’s and Quinn’s defense turned around the Cowboys this season. Dallas’ defense improved dramatically from 28th in the league in points allowed in 2020, before the Cowboys hired Quinn and Whitt, to seventh in points allowed this season with Quinn and Whitt coaching it.

Whitt’s secondary did what Seattle’s defense did not in 2021: create turnovers. Carroll has mentioned that as a top priority to improve for the Seahawks for next season. The Cowboys led the NFL with 26 interceptions this past season. Seattle’s 11 interceptions were fifth-fewest in the league.

A secondary coach with ties to a former Seahawks defensive coordinator is what Kris Richard was before Carroll hired him as Seattle’s defensive coordinator in 2015.

Norton replaced Richard before the 2018 season.

Whitt is the third reported candidate to become Seattle’s defensive coordinator who is from outside Carroll’s current Seahawks staff.

Carroll and his team have requested to interview Ed Donatell, the defensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos, ESPN reported.

The Athletic reported the Seahawks have also asked Chicago for permission to interview Sean Desai. The 38-year-old Desai just finished his first season as the Bears’ defensive coordinator.

Carroll is also considering Seahawks defensive line coach Clint Hurtt for the coordinator job, according to The Seattle Times.

For the fourth hiring of a defensive coordinator in 12 years leading the Seahawks, will Carroll bring in another one of his own guys familiar with the head boss’ defense and how he wants the system played?

There is no shortage of experienced, seemingly available candidates that fit that description.

One is Gus Bradley. Now 55, Bradley was Carroll’s first Seahawks defensive coordinator from 2010-12, the top assistant Carroll retained from the staff of fired Jim Mora’s one Seattle season in 2009. Bradley, like Quinn, left the job only because he parlayed his success running Carroll’s defensive system in Seattle into his first head-coaching jobs in the NFL.

Or will Carroll, at age 70, extend himself to hire the first truly new outsider of his Seahawks tenure?

That is the question of the first major change for 2022 resulting from Seattle’s 7-10 season, its most losses since 2009, and from Carroll’s and general manager John Schneider’s end-of-season meeting late last week with Seahawks chair Jody Allen.

Seattle’s defense couldn’t get off the field, consistently pressure quarterbacks or cover receivers in 2020 and ‘21 as aggressively as Carroll’s Seahawks teams mostly have.

At first glance Carroll’s interest in Donatell appears to be interest in an outsider.

But the 64-year-old Donatell knows how Carroll wants a defense run. He first worked with Carroll way back in 1983, at Pacific. Donatell was Carroll’s defensive backs coach when Carroll was the defensive coordinator at his alma mater. When Carroll was the defensive coordinator with the New York Jets from 1990-93, Donatell was his DBs coach. Donatell stayed in that job the one season Carroll got as a first-time head coach, with the Jets in 1994.

Donatell has been the defensive coordinator for Green Bay, Atlanta and Denver in the NFL. He also was Tyrone Willingham’s defensive coordinator for the University of Washington in 2008, an infamous season when the Huskies went 0-12.

Donatell is known for varied defenses and for being a coordinator for defensive-minded head coaches. He was the Broncos’ coordinator when defense-first Vic Fangio was largely running Denver’s defense as head man from 2019 until the Broncos fired Fangio Jan. 9.

Donatell and Fangio had Denver in two-high safety looks pre-snap — what Seattle was in more than ever under Carroll in 2021 — more than any other NFL team, more than 60% of the time. Then Fangio’s and Donatell’s Broncos defenses often jumped into single-high coverage: the scheme that Carroll won a Super Bowl with on his best Seattle defenses, or into rolling hybrids with deep safety help to confuse quarterbacks after snaps.

Donatell’s son Tom was a defensive quality-control assistant for the Seahawks and Carroll from 2017-20.