Kerney takes flight

When veteran defensive end Patrick Kerney was deciding between Mike Shanahan’s Denver Broncos and Mike Holmgren’s Seattle Seahawks, his former Atlanta Falcons head coach and new Seahawks assistant head coach/defensive backs Jim Mora Jr. went above and beyond to sell Kerney on Seattle.

Mora says he accompanied Kerney on Seahawks owner Paul Allen’s private jet from Denver to Seattle and asked the pilot to take a Pacific Northwest detour straight from a Discovery Channel flight plan.

“Pat’s a pilot, and Mr. Allen’s pilot dropped that plane right into Mount St. Helens and took us out over the Olympic Mountains peninsula,” Mora says. “The next day, we took Mr. Allen’s seaplane over Puget Sound to see some World War II fighter planes Mr. Allen is restoring. Pat was able to see how beautiful this area is, something I’d been telling him for weeks.

“I said, ‘Pat, you love to hike. You love the outdoors.’ When he saw it and players like Matt Hasselbeck reached out to him and he sat with Mike Holmgren, it just fit.”

With 58 sacks in 121 career games, Kerney, who signed a six-year, $39.5 million deal, seems an ideal fit to energize a pedestrian pass rush that managed 41 sacks, including seven in Seattle’s final seven games.

“This place is spectacular,” Kerney says. “It’s a great organization I’ve always had my eye on.”

Hasselbeck was asked if he’d feel safer on team charters knowing Kerney, 30, is a licensed pilot.

“That’s a great point,” he said. “I feel safer with him around anyway. He’s a pretty big dude.”

It’s hard to imagine Kerney, 6-foot-5, 272 pounds, was once a tall, skinny prep school kid in Watertown, Conn.

Kerney and Mora have similar high-revving motors that figure to boost the front and back ends of a defense susceptible to big-play breakdowns.

After a 9-7 regular season ended with a 27-24 divisional playoff overtime loss at the Chicago Bears, the Seahawks upgraded their pass rush and coverage, adding veteran free agent safeties Deon Grant from the Jacksonville Jaguars and Brian Russell from the Cleveland Browns.

Seahawks President and general manager Tim Ruskell served as the Falcons assistant GM in 2004, Mora’s first season as head coach, when Kerney posted a career-best 13 sacks.

“Pat’s a ball-of-fire guy who makes everybody around him better,” Ruskell says. “The energy level and knowledge Jim Mora, Deon Grant and Brian Russell bring has really solidified the communication in the secondary.”

Kerney says he’s in the best shape of his nine-year career after November surgery to repair a torn chest muscle.

“In my first year in Atlanta when I was trying to teach those guys the intensity I wanted them to play and practice with, I’d pull plays out, and it was always Pat,” Mora says. “He goes, goes and goes, and he attacked his rehab the same way.”

Kerney and teammate Darryl Tapp were game when Mora and a buddy suggested a 6 a.m. hike up a nearby peak. The fit 45-year-old scored a humbling victory.

“Jim broke me off,” Kerney says. “He’s up every morning hiking a different mountain, and he coaches how I play, aggressive and fired up.

Holmgren says this could be the most balanced team of his nine-year Seahawks coaching tenure.

“We have the potential to be as good as we’ve ever been on defense,” he says. “If Patrick Kerney can give us the same type of sack potential he’s shown, that would really help us.”