Seahawks Sign Defender & Insider Reveals ‘Front-Runner’ for New Coach

Pete Carroll

Getty Head coach Pete Carroll's Seahawks have their hands full in the NFC West.

The offseason may have just started for the Seattle Seahawks, but the franchise has already been busy making moves. The Seahawks announced another reserve/future contract signing as the team added defensive end Alex Tchangam.

“Tchangam, who went undrafted out of the University of Colorado in 2020, is the 13th player Seattle signed to a future contract this offseason, having signed 12 practice squad players earlier this month,” Seahawks.com’s John Boyle detailed on January 19. “A latecomer to the game of football, Tchangam, who is from Cameroon, didn’t play organized football until he was in junior college at De Anza College, where he recorded 16 sacks in 15 games. At Colorado, Tchangam appeared in 20 games over two seasons, starting four as a senior.”

Meanwhile, the Seahawks are in the market for a new defensive coordinator after parting ways with Ken Norton Jr. ESPN’s Dan Graziano reported that former Broncos defensive coordinator Ed Donatell is the “front-runner” to be the latest addition to the Seahawks coaching staff.

“It sounds as if Broncos defensive coordinator Ed Donatell is the front-runner to land that same job with the Seattle Seahawks,” Graziano explained on January 21. “Donatell has had a couple of brief stints on the University of Washington coaching staff, so he has ties to the area.”

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The Seahawks Requested to Interview Cowboys Assistant Joe Whitt Jr.: Report

Cowboys defensive passing game coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. joins the growing list of coaches connected to the Seahawks vacancy. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported that the Seahawks requested to interview Whitt.

“The Seahawks put in a request to interview Cowboys defensive passing game coordinator/secondary Joe Whitt Jr. for their defensive coordinator job, per source. Whitt is a 14-year NFL assistant and widely respected,” Pelissero tweeted on January 19.

Former Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai is also in the mix for the Seahawks position, per The Athletic’s Michael-Shawn Dugar.

“Hearing that another name to watch in the Seahawks defensive coordinator search is Sean Desai of the Bears,” Dugar detailed on Twitter on January 19. “Seahawks have requested to interview him, I’m told.”


Seahawks DC Opening Is Donatell’s ‘Job to Lose,’ Says Insider

As for Donatell, the Seahawks coaching candidate outlined his defensive philosophy during a September 2019 interview with the Broncos official website.

“The first thing is any great defense over the years is feared by opponents,” Donatell said at the time. “People get on the field, they feel that you’re going to be really tight to them, the coverage is going be there, the hitting is going to be clean. Our first and foremost place we start is tackling.

“…There’s no summit to tackling. You have to work on it every week. If you just slip a little bit, you’re going to look bad in your preparation. So, no summit to tackling, that’s probably number one; if you’re a clean tackling team, you’re usually going to like what you see.”

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler described the Seahawks defensive coordinator vacancy as Donatell’s “job to lose.”

“And on Donatell and Seattle, here’s what one source said about his candidacy for the Seahawks’ defensive coordinator job: ‘It’s his job to lose,'” Fowler explained on January 21.


The Seahawks Have Now Signed 13 Players to Reserve Deals

Tchangam had a brief stint with the Seahawks during the team’s 2021 training camp, per Sports Illustrated’s Corbin Smith. Seattle announced the signing of 12 other players to futures deals on January 10.

“Seahawks have signed DE Alex Tchangam to a reserve/future contract,” Smith tweeted. “Spent brief time with team in training camp last August and also a spell on practice squad during the season.”

Tchangam joins the following list of players the Seahawks previously signed to reserve deals: WR Aaron Fuller, WR Matt Cole, DT Myles Adams, LB Aaron Donkor, T Greg Eiland, DT Jarrod Hewitt, CB Mike Jackson, WR Cade Johnson, G Pier-Olivier Lestage, WR Cody Thompson, LB Lakiem Williams and DT Niles Scott.