Seahawks promote Clint Hurtt to defensive coordinator

RENTON, Wash. (AP) - The Seattle Seahawks finalized their coaching staff on Tuesday with the promotion of Clint Hurtt to defensive coordinator and the hiring of Karl Scott and Sean Desai to the defensive staff.

Hurtt has spent the past five seasons as the defensive line coach for Seattle. He replaces Ken Norton Jr., who was fired after last season.

Desai joins Seattle as the associate head coach-defense after spending last season as the defensive coordinator in Chicago. Scott will be Seattle's defensive passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach.

'œIt's great to get everybody in the building for the first time together with our new staff and the new outlook that we have for the season,'ť coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. 'œThe fresh start feels exciting, and we're looking forward to guys stepping up into their roles. The newness with Clint taking over on defense and working together with an old friend of his in Sean Desai gives us a really exciting outlook for the future. Being able to bring in a guy the caliber of Karl Scott to take over the secondary, we're very fortunate to have landed him as the passing game coordinator.'ť

Seattle also announced changes on the offensive side. Sanjay Lal will return as wide receivers coach and offensive passing game coordinator. Lal worked for Seattle in 2020 before spending last season with Jacksonville.

Andy Dickerson will serve as the offensive line coach after Seattle let go of veteran coach Mike Solari. Dickerson was Seattle's run game coordinator last season. That role will now be filled by running backs coach Chad Morton.

Nate Carroll will be a senior offensive assistant and Dave Canales will take over as quarterbacks coach after the departure of Austin Davis.

"It'll be great for us to put Andy in the position of coaching the offensive line, maximizing all that (offensive coordinator) Shane (Waldron) has in his background - those guys work together extremely well - and mixing them with Sanjay will give us good new insight and new juice and fire that we're excited about,'ť Carroll said. 'œWe're excited about it every year at this time, but maybe more than ever in that it just seems like it's new and fresh and ready to get rolling.'ť

Other changes for Seattle's coaching staff include: Aaron Curry (assistant defensive line/defensive ends coach); Brad Idzik (assistant wide receivers coach); Kerry Joseph (assistant quarterbacks coach); DeShawn Shead (assistant defensive backs coach); Damione Lewis (assistant defensive line/defensive tackles coach); and Will Tukuafu (quality control coach-defense).

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