Hmmm ... I'd say that Lofa knows a thing or 2 about linebackers, don't you think?
Tatupu strikes me as a guy who'd be very good as a coach. As a LB, Lofa never had the fastest wheels in the world. What of course made him great was the fact that he had lightning quick recognition skills. He could diagnose so blasted fast and react to it quicker than most. Often times, the most physically talented (those blessed with phenomenal speed or natural god-given talent) don't make the best coaches. That's because they don't have to think about what they do and HOW they do it -- they just perform. Guys who have to work their butts off in trying to make up for elite level freak physical prowess often times achieve greatness because they are very reflective on how they do things. They make good coaches because they able to mentally think through the sequence (or checklist) of what proper technique looks like ... and therefore are better equipped to be able to communicate that to others.
Plus as everyone knows being a MLB, Lofa WAS the captain of that entire Seahawks defense, so knew precisely where everyone was supposed to be on a given play, what their jobs were, the philosophy behind defensive schemes, and understood fairly well how opposing offenses were looking to attack them.
You throw in the fact that Lofa obviously KNOWS Pete Carroll's system and was always a great leader and communicator, and for me that makes this a very intriguing hire.
I know he hasn't had a lot of opportunity as a coach yet, but I have the sneaking feeling that this is one of those moves that in 2 or 3 years time we're going to be saying to ourselves -- Pete Carroll was an absolute genius.