Seattle Seahawks Sign Casey Bradley, Tampa Bay's LBs Coach, As New DC

The Seahawks have announced the signing of Casey "Gus" Bradley as their new defensive coordinator. Although he comes with light NFL experience, it is widely understood that the defensive schemes will be planned mostly by Mora, with the DC accepting more of an understudy role to the masterful Mora.

Bradley played Safety and Punter at North Dakota State University (1984-1988). He was an academic all-North Central Conference Selection for four of the years he played there, and a contributing factor of the 1988 national championship team that featured retired Buffalo Bills DE Phil Hansen.

Bradley was coached at NDSU by Rocky Hager, who led the Bisons to two Division II National Championships after ascending to that post from the DC/Linebackers coach position. It is likely that Bradley's defensive roots were seeded here, and it was under Hager that "Gus" arguably began the road to defensive ingenuity.

In 1990-'91, Bradley was a graduate assistant coach under Hager, where he began his official tutelage. The following season, Bradley was hired as the DC/linebackers coach for Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO, where he stayed through the 1995 season.

As DC, Bradley coached one of Fort Lewis' most prolific historical players, Aaron Dunlap, who received All-American honorable mention in 1995. In December 1995, Bradley was named the head coach of the Fort Lewis Skyhawks, where he remained for four months before going back to the North Dakota State Bisons as an assistant coach. Here, he would remain until 2005

From 1997-'02, and 2005, Bradley was the DC for the Bisons, where he led the Bisons to the best defense in the Great West Football Conference in 2005. One of those players, defensive back Craig Dahl, would become an undrafted member of the 2007 New York Giants' Super Bowl Championship team.

In 2006, Bradley joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the defensive quality control coach, working closely with DC Monte Kiffin to improve the performance of the TB defense, consisting of such high-profile players as Derrick Brooks, Ronde Barber, and Simeon Rice.

In 2007, Bradley was named the linebackers coach of Tampa Bay, where he would inherit one of the most prolific corps in the game, consisting of Brooks, Barrett Ruud and Cato June. Bradley's contributions to the defense enabled the Bucs to improve from a 17th-ranked defense to No. 2 overall in 2007.

Bradley is coming to another highly-decorated linebacker squad in Seattle, with the likes of Leroy Hill (expected to be franchised), Lofa Tatupu, and Julian Peterson. Along with the LBs, Bradley is going to inherit a defense that has shown significant decline in the past year.

To say the least, Bradley has a lot of work ahead of him. Coming off a lackluster pass rush, Bradley has to figure out a way to make opposing QBs feel the pressure to generate turnovers and get the defense off the field much faster.