Aden Durde - Defensive Coordinator, seahawks Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-17 | Full transcript (primary source).
Aden Durde, Defensive Coordinator for the Seahawks, addressed the media on September 17, 2026, to discuss the team's defensive performance and communication during recent games. The press conference provided insights into the team's strategies and adjustments in response to their opponents, particularly focusing on the influence of the Arizona Cardinals' new coaching staff.
Transcript
Durde: Good, thanks. So new coach over there in Arizona, but he's bringing a little bit of Los Angeles with him, they played a decent amount of 13. Do you see some similarities in how Los Angeles and Arizona are using that personnel package?
Durde: Yeah, you can see some of the influences, but Mike has his own style and he'll have offsets to that and the ability to do multiple things out of those looks just like they have in the Rams.
Durde: We talked to Julian earlier, he said he was pleased that it looked like it was pretty clean on defense, this is a big one, it's chaos, but Jenna said communication could be better late in the game. What did you see in terms of overall effort in that communication?
Durde: Yeah, I saw a group of guys that took one play at a time and they didn't let any of the game and how the game flowed affect them. That was one of the ways we was proud of them the most is like, every play they kind of reset and just went again and went again and let the game present itself instead of trying to chase plays, instead of trying to go after to make a play to change the game, put it on one person, they just put it on the defense and said, okay, let's attack this game play after play.
Durde: And you felt on the sideline, they were talking about that. What do you like about it?
Durde: A lot. No, I think when you get players that are versatile like Leo, it's the ability to move them around. You can create match ups with them. You can create like problems because they have the ability to erase certain situations that schematically affect maybe fronts or maybe coverages. And putting them in different positions allows us to really kind of really say at certain times, okay, do something over there. And we can own that matchup and just allowing us to put it in those different places allows us to kind of at times control the situation. But a lot of that comes down to Leo's work and his dedication to understand the game and his ability to process information in short amounts of time because he can be put in one spot, another spot. He's rushing from multiple different spots. So you have to really study different players. So a lot of that is credit to him.
Durde: In that sense, you're dictating to the offense, but before you. At times you try and like end the snap just before the ball snap. You want to end that situation with the chalk in your hand and the situation in your favor. It doesn't always work like that, but that's the battle and the beauty of the game.
Durde: Is it like the NBA where it's matchup driven and you say, if I put him out here, he's better off?
Durde: I think at times, closer you get to the football, it can be matchup driven. It's almost like the concept of defense and you're defending. The closer you get to the ball, it becomes more attacking in past situations and in run situations. Because it is truly matchup one on one situations. How do they get two people on one person? And that I think at times is more matchup based.
Durde: What if anything is unique about the way he and Darren rush together?
Durde: Yeah, I think it's their connection. As you go through it, I think they both have, there's certain like technical things like they both have great get off. Leo has the ability to penetrate as he's moving forwards when he's rushing and D-Haul has a good feel of that. But really, guys that can work together, they have to work at it. Because they have to understand like, if I do this, you will do this. If I get this set, I'm gonna do this. And then a lot of it is, and this doesn't just go for those two, it goes for the front. And I think a lot of players on the defense is that it's unselfish too. It's the ability that I feed you, you feed me, we celebrate. You saw it on, I thought Byron Sack really told that story. I mean, Leo Sack really told that story. Byron has a great rush, counters on the guard. He just misses the sack, and Leo gets it. And the first person to celebrate with him was Byron, like pure joy. And those things are really cool to see.
Durde: Who's the first person most likely to come to you guys and the coaching staff from the players and have an idea of what to do in a given week? Which player?
Durde: Yeah, which player's most likely to come up with a suggestion or- I think there's a lot. I think like, Spoon does it, Julian does it. EJ and Drake do it all the time. They have different conversations either to their position coach or to the coordinator or myself or to Mike. It's the beauty of what Mike's created here is that it's everything's a two way conversation. This isn't like, this is what we're doing. This is how we have to operate. You're doing it our way. It's not like that. It's that we set an operating scheme and we set a way of doing something. And then it's that two way conversation of how do we make it work together? How do we all understand it? What suits a person best? Where can we fit that person into like, it feature their superpower. So there's a lot of conversation both ways.
Durde: What's said about how riding time is going to be?
Durde: I love though, like when you see Rodney, when you see Nehemiah, I love those situations where you have these guys that step up and we've talked about it for the last couple of years when we've been here, is that I just thought what stood out that he took the opportunity. You see his ability to play in the post, his ability to like, play really from red line to red line, his speed. But I thought his tackling really stood out and he'd done a really good job.
Durde: Your violence that you guys play with, China, D Hall, like how critical is that to your guys' run defense?
Durde: No, it's really critical. I'd say like, I think violence is in this game done the right way is the way the game is meant to be played. And I think it should happen on the edge of the defense. It should happen on the interior of the defense. It should happen on the second level of the defense. And it should happen on the third level of defense. And like, that's a standard that the guys have set. And I think if you're not doing it that way, you can see it more than if you are doing it that way.
Durde: How important is the awareness? You talked about the rush, but let's talk about the coverage. How important is the awareness of the coverage to know about the rush? So you're rushing coverage, working together.
Durde: Yeah, I think that that's what you're looking for. That's the kind of, that's that North Star. And that's that place you're pushing for all the time, is that rush and cover, that ability to, there's going to be times where someone gets a quick win. And they affect the QB on the spot. And that disrupts the play. And then there's other times, and most of the time it really works like this. The coverage need to take him off his first look and get him to hitch once or twice. And then the rush has to be there. And that's like the trust that's built between the back end and the front end is like when those things happen, the other guy is backing him up. So if I get a quick win, I might not be as tight to coverage. But if I don't get a quick win, oh, the back end is backing me up. And they are working through my rush. And I can finish because he's put him onto his second or third progression.
Durde: Type was open. Sorry. Yeah, sorry. I was going to just follow up. Type with Drake Thomas about the importance of tackling. Just how you are, how important is it just a basics, but how does it show up in the game?
Durde: Yeah, I think I know it's like it's a cliche thing to say. But talk about all the time. CP talks about and does a great job with our fundamental plan is that every yard matters. And if the guys say it all the time, if you give us a blade of grass, we're going to fight for it. And I think that comes down to the way you tackle, that you're trying to limit yards all the time. So if you're not a great tackling team, you're going to have yards after contact. You're going to have broken tackles. And if you really look at the data, most of explosive plays come off broken tackles. So the more you can get the guy on the ground, get waves of guys to the football, it's the foundation of how Mike and all of us guys are trying to build the defense.
Durde: Mike was open in a recent interview about how hard the first year was for him here. I don't know if you heard any of that. He talked about how it was too late in the season that he really kind of started feeling like himself. As you were someone that was here and close with him, did you see that? And what was it like to see him kind of go through that first year and how he's changed since?
Durde: Someone asked me a question like this about Miller last year, not really about the part of him struggling, but my relationship with Mike is that I've always known, like I know we haven't known each other before, but he's kind of always been the same with me. And I love my relationship. I think when we both go through tough things and we talk about it to each other and be there for each other, I think that's what a great working relationship is. And as you go through this, I think there's always ups and downs. This is a pressure business and the more, that's the beauty for myself. Working here is that you enjoy the pressure because you're doing it with a group of people that you love working with and have a blast.
Durde: Back to Ari's question about the physicality and the edge against the run, how much is Arizona on the scheme and it'll be four in the outside, so I'm going to test that.
Durde: I think we get tested every week. Like the more they condense the formations and they're moving people left and right before the snap, it's a real challenge on their eyes. And when they're trying to focus on certain keys and understand there's someone here and this ball can go out here and I can get a down block whilst I also can get a run at me, I think it's games like this are a key game base where you have to see your key, you have to play your key and your key will tell you the truth and they make it hard, they do a great job of that.
Durde: Do they look like they're doing anything different to get the ball to McBride? I know they've always got the ball to McBride.
Durde: Yeah, there are multiple different ways to get it. He's an excellent player with a ball in his hands and an excellent route runner. He's a problem that we have to deal with and we're working towards it.
Durde: Pritchett, what did you think of the way he played?
Durde: Yeah, I thought he, I really thought Nehemiah played confident. He challenged, he was against some really good players and he didn't just stand up. He went for it, had a great third down stop and an interception. It was, for the whole defense, it's a proud moment to see like Nehemiah kind of graduate from being the young player he was, go to be a gunner and then he's excelling when he comes on the field. He done a great job.
Durde: Thanks guys. Sorry.
