“There's been so much passing game in the last 10 years, and I think the nickel, it's half the game,” Pete Carroll told me last year. “Half the game, you're in nickel or some kind of substitution defense. So, it's whichever way you want to look at it; maybe that's base and the other part is substitution now. We're divided about 500 plays to 500 plays year in and year out, and it's a big deal. That's why [on defense], we have more than 11 starters. We've got 15-16 starters that we see, and you can tell, depending on the opponent and the situation in the game, how many of those guys we'll move in and out, and feel comfortable doing that.”
