Call them the Krunch Kids
KIRKLAND, Wash. — For some tips on how to play in the NFL, the Seattle Seahawks’ young defensive players could do worse than heeding the advice of 34-year-old linebacker Chad Brown.
As for an example of what not to do? Well, Chad Brown could help there, too.
Brown remembers an incident in his first preseason game 11 years ago, when he saw veteran teammate David Little in the huddle and eagerly started a conversation.
“I was like, ‘Did you know that in your rookie year, I was in the third grade?’ ” Brown, who is recovering from a broken leg, recalled Wednesday. “He looked at me, rolled his eyes and said, ‘Shut up and get in the huddle.’ “
A few of the Seahawks’ young greenhorns have treated Brown with a similar disrespect, telling him they loved watching him on television between Pop Warner games. But they’ve played well enough in his absence to make up for it.
Despite an average age of 25.6 years, with no one older than 28, Seattle’s defense has played well beyond its age so far this season.
After two games, the Seahawks lead the NFL in points allowed (6.5 per contest) and rank eighth in yards allowed (276.0 per contest).
This comes despite a starting lineup that includes a few guys who are barely old enough to get into a bar.
“Shoot, I already had girlfriends when some of these guys were born,” 34-year-old offensive lineman Robbie Tobeck said while looking around the locker room. “You go in the weight room, and they’re turning off great ‘80s music. They don’t even know who Madonna or Michael Jackson is. It’s kind of scary.”
By way of comparison, the Seahawks’ starting defense for the 2003 opener had an average age of 28. Only three of this year’s starters _ Anthony Simmons, Grant Wistrom and Chike Okeafor _ are 28.
Last year’s defense has five starters age 30 or older. There are no thirty-somethings on the 2004 defense.
The 2003 defense included one player, John Randle, who played his final college game in the 1980s. This year’s defense has three starters who were born in the ‘80s.
“It really just comes down to the players we have and the kind of coaches we have,” said Marcus Trufant, a 23-year-old cornerback from Washington State who has started every game of his NFL career. “The young players we have don’t know what to expect, and we listen to the coaches because that’s all we know. We’re just going out there and trying our best, and we’re getting it done.”
Seattle’s starting defense includes seven players who are in their first or second years as starters. Ken Lucas, 25, in his fourth season, is considered one of the veterans.
Seattle’s defense is more confident in its aggressiveness because of a simpler scheme. Before Ray Rhodes, the Seahawks had a series of defensive coordinators who seemed to have a counter move for every adjustment the offense made.
Now players are being asked to think less while doing more.
“With defense, there’s a lot of reaction. It’s about what you see the offense doing, and reacting from there,” said Simmons, a seventh-year player who has already played for five different defensive coordinators in Seattle. “If you have to make a lot of adjustments, and switch here and there, it kind of slows down your reaction because you’re thinking a lot.”
Spoken like a true veteran. But Simmons and his fellow 28-year-olds aren’t playing like old men.
“They’ve got motors where they’re going 100 miles per hour 100 percent of the time,” Trufant said. “They’re running around like they’re rookies.
“I don’t look at anybody like an old guy on our defense.”
Not now. But there’s a third-grader somewhere that’s certain to one day hit them with a dose of reality.