Report: Seahawks to add Ed Donatell to coaching staff

The search continues for the Seattle Seahawks’ next defensive coordinator, and while they’ve hired one of the names linked to the defensive coordinator position, he won’t be the next DC.

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports that longtime NFL assistant and former Denver Broncos DC Ed Donatell will be hired in an undefined role on the defensive side of the ball.

Donatell and Pete Carroll go way back to 1983, when Pete was the defensive coordinator at Pacific University and Ed was the Defensive Backs coach. They assumed the same roles in the 1990s when they worked together with the New York Jets, but have not been on the same coaching staff since then.

Ed’s specialty is coaching DBs, which seems pretty notable considering the Seahawks also have a vacancy at passing game coordinator following the departure of Andre Curtis. Donatell has served as DC in Denver, Atlanta, and Green Bay. He also had the misfortune of being the DC at the University of Washington the year they went winless, and that was his last college job.

Former Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai, Dallas Cowboys passing game coordinator Joe Whitt Jr, and current Seahawks defensive line coach Clint Hurtt are the three names who’ve been linked to the vacant position.