Seahawks have a defense now, too

Call these Seahawks the "D-Hawks."

For perhaps the first time in the Mike Holmgren era — which ends at the conclusion of this season — defense is the strength of the team.

There has been a noticeable shift from offense, Holmgren's signature stamp, to defense, which became the emphasis when Tim Ruskell took over as president and general manager in 2005.

Holmgren's missteps as general manager, a position he held for his first four seasons in Seattle, and his focus on building the offense, might have put the Seahawks on the path to their recent success. Without mistakes made by Holmgren, the Seahawks might never have gone searching for the true difference-maker of a football executive they found in Ruskell.

Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, left tackle Walter Jones and wide receiver Bobby Engram are all that is left of the core of Holmgren's offensive rebuilding project, which began when he arrived from Green Bay. In 1999, Year One of the Holmgren general manager-coach era, the Seattle defense was loaded with veteran players. Defensive end Michael Sinclair. Defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy. Linebackers Chad Brown and Anthony Simmons. Safety Shawn Springs.

Holmgren went to work revamping the offense. By 2001, a true offensive core was born with the arrival of Hasselbeck, Shaun Alexander, Robbie Tobeck, Steve Hutchinson, Darrell Jackson and Engram to go with Jones, a first-round pick in 1997.

The defense was a patchwork of free agents sprinkled with a few draft picks. From 2000 to 2002, the Seahawks drafted offensive players in the first round.

After the 2002 season, Holmgren was asked to give up the GM role.

When Ruskell arrived in 2005, he took the core that had been established on offense and set about rebuilding the defense via the draft.

"We needed to be better on defense. It was as simple as that," Ruskell said. "Let's not make it any more complicated than that."

Lofa Tatupu was chosen in the second round in 2005, Leroy Hill in the third. The next year brought Kelly Jennings in the first round and Darryl Tapp in the second. Josh Wilson was the team's first pick in 2007, and Brandon Mebane was the second.

Ruskell has supplemented that with big-name free agents — Deon Grant, Julian Peterson, Patrick Kerney and Brian Russell. Now with some stability on defense, it is the offense that is in transition.

"If [defense is] our emphasis, we need to step it up more," Tatupu said. "We've had a top-five offense here probably the last seven, eight years, so we have to do something to complement them."

The only defensive starters left over from the previous regimes are Rocky Bernard, one of the last players Holmgren drafted as GM, and Marcus Trufant, who was chosen in the 2003 draft.

"Coming into this league as a quarterbacks coach and an offensive coordinator and putting together some potent offenses, having a Hall-of-Fame quarterback like [Brett] Favre, you can kind of get centered on that being your legacy," said Will Lewis, the Seahawks' pro personnel director said of Holmgren, with whom he has been with since the Packers days. "To his credit, he was able to accept a lot of input from some other people."

Ruskell, too, has missed on draft picks and free agents. Still, his approach of building the team through the draft and bolstering it with free agents who fit his profile of team players with high character has become the franchise standard.

"We rolled up our sleeves and couldn't have done it if we weren't all on board," Ruskell said, recalling when he first started building his type of team with input from Holmgren. "It would have been too hard. So that was an important cog, that Mike knew where we're at. He knew what had to be done and he was good with it."

And now, a reversal of emphasis. The offense has changed, with Julius Jones and T.J. Duckett replacing Alexander, Mike Wahle as the new left guard, and Rob Sims moving to right guard. No receiver remains from the Holmgren GM era except Engram, and there are two new tight ends in Jeb Putzier and rookie John Carlson.

"The biggest thing in the offseason was [the acquisition of] Mike Wahle. That was huge," Holmgren said. "He's really a good football player, and you don't really, in free agency, get a chance to do that all that much with a player of his caliber."

On the other side of the ball, the "D-Hawks" are back, all 11 starters. Grant and Russell at safety. Trufant and Jennings at cornerback. Hill, Tatupu and Peterson at linebacker. Tapp (who could be supplanted by rookie Lawrence Jackson but will still figure heavily in the playing rotation) Bernard, Kerney and Mebane on the defensive line.

It's a proven group that allowed the fewest touchdown passes last season, 15, and finished second in the NFL in forced three-and-outs with 52. A team that loves to get after the quarterback, as shown in its 136 sacks since the start of the 2005 season, second most in the NFL.

Oh yeah, and four of the Seahawks' six Pro Bowlers in 2007? Defensive players.

"We kept the same guys, so there shouldn't be a falloff," Peterson said. "There's no reason that we shouldn't be one of the top defenses in the league."

For his part, Holmgren has learned to better take input from others in the organization and offer input to those who make the personnel moves.

He goes into his final season in Seattle the way he began his illustrious career — as a hands-on coach, mentor and teacher.

José Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409 or jromero@

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