Seattle Seahawks
The Seattle Seahawks announced Wednesday the hiring of Bob Casullo as the new special teams coach.
Casullo most recently coached tight ends for the New York Jets in 2004, after serving four seasons (2000-03) as special teams coach for the Oakland Raiders.
In his only season with the Jets, Casullo's tight end corps helped sustain a balanced offense that allowed Curtis Martin to win the league's rushing title and the quarterbacks to post a better than 90.0 passer rating.
"He was disappointed he didn't get the job last year," said Mike Holmgren on Casullo, who had been a candidate for the vacant special teams position with the Seahawks a year ago that eventually went to Mark Michaels.
Casullo was still under contract with the Jets, but Jets coach Herm Edwards said if Casullo was offered a special teams position with another team he could pursue it. Holmgren said he had a list of six candidates for the position, and Casullo was first on the list.
"I had an advantage because both Gil Haskell and Nolan Cromwell know the special teams community very well," Holmgren said, "they were both outstanding special teams coaches when they were doing that, and Gil actually made the contacts down at the Senior Bowl."
While at Oakland Casullo helped lead the Raiders to three AFC West Division titles and a Super Bowl XXXVII appearance following the 2002 season. The Raiders fielded a special teams unit that ranked second in the AFC and third in the NFL in punt return average with a 12.9 yard average in 2003. Casullo coached punter Shane Lechler to a NFL-best 46.9 yard punting average and a 37.2 net punting average, good for the second-highest average in the NFL.
In 2002, Casullo's special teams unit ranked third in the AFC in kickoffs (28-yard average opponent's start), sixth in the AFC in punt returns (11.0-yard average) and eighth in the conference in kickoff returns (21.6-yard average). In 2001, Oakland ranked first in the NFL in kickoff coverage, stopping opponents inside the 20 17 times and produced a Pro Bowl punter in Shane Lechler, who led the AFC in gross punting average with a 46.2 average.
In 2000, he coached special teams units that ranked first in the NFL in touchbacks and in net punting average.