When discussing the free-agent acquisition of safety Bradley McDougald, the two names that Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider brought up were Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril.

"Just a player we had rated very highly as an unrestricted guy," Schneider said. "We loved what he did last year with 90-some tackles and we just felt like, the guy was still out there. It was one of those deals where we have a good relationship with his agent, they reached out to us, and his market didn’t necessarily go where he wanted. So that’s why we were able to work out a one-year deal with him and just see where it goes."

During the 2013 offseason, the Seahawks signed Bennett and Avril to short-term deals as unrestricted free agents. Both players worked their way into starting roles and have emerged as Pro Bowlers in recent years.

Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll made it clear last week at the owners' meetings that McDougald may be the free-agent signing they're most excited about. The 26-year-old started 31 games at safety for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the last two years. His one-year deal with the Seahawks is worth up to $1.8 million with $750,000 guaranteed.

But it's fair to wonder just how McDougald fits into the Seahawks' plans. Earl Thomas is expected to be healthy for the start of the season, and the Seahawks have Kam Chancellor at the other safety spot.

Asked if McDougald can play both free and strong safety, Carroll said, "He can. He’s been good enough in the past to move guys around on their own team. There’s a chance we can be creative with some stuff, and we’ll look forward to figuring that out."

One way the Seahawks could get creative is with a big nickel package. Their base defense is a 4-3, but when Seattle is in nickel, it goes with two linebackers and five defensive backs. Jeremy Lane, the team's nickel corner last season, played 71.4 percent of the defensive snaps.

A big nickel package would likely use McDougald as the fifth defensive back instead of Lane. That would mean four defensive linemen, two linebackers, two cornerbacks and three safeties.

This would be useful against offenses that have playmaking tight ends or against teams that run the ball a lot out of three- and four-WR sets. The idea is that McDougald can cover better than a SAM linebacker and play the run better than Lane.

"There’s ways for us to play a bigger nickel group, and we’re wide open to that flexibility with Earl and with Kam," Carroll said. "We played over 800 snaps of nickel last year, the most we’ve ever played by far. And there’s different opportunities in early-down situations to vary your groups, which we’ve done sometimes in the past already.

"What we are is we’re open to the competition of it and what the players bring. If they can bring something, hopefully we’ll identify it, and we’ll figure out how to tweak things so we can do that. There’s a lot of opportunity for us."

The Seahawks have not been very creative with their sub packages the last two seasons, playing almost all nickel with Lane. But last offseason, they experimented with the idea of using Brandon Browner in a hybrid role as a third safety. That didn't end up working out, but Seattle is more committed financially to McDougald and seems legitimately excited about carving out more than just a backup role for him.

"He has the kind of mentality in guys we are looking for," Carroll said. "Has a chip on his shoulder, wants to prove it. He’s always had to do that -- make his own way. So he’s coming in here to battle with us. It’s a great addition."