There’s no shortage of interesting matchups for the Seahawks and the Broncos’ Monday night showdown five days from now. One that deserves more attention is the battle of wits between Denver’s new coach Nathaniel Hackett and Pete Carroll, who’s about to turn 71 and has managed to outlast both the Legion of Boom and the Russell Wilson eras.
Carroll has strange ideas about running an offense, but he remains one of the most-respected defensive minds in football. Meanwhile, Hackett is considered a rising force on offense. He spent the last three seasons as Green Bay’s offensive coordinator. All he did there was the impossible by getting Aaron Rodgers to actually buy into an offense, leading to two-straight MVP awards and one of the NFL’s top scoring units. (The Packers led the league in points per game in 2020 and finished No. 10 in 2021).
