Richard Sherman should be happy with Monday's promotion of Kris Richard.
Last month, the Seahawks cornerback wondered aloud why his position coach wasn't getting recognition for open defensive coordinator jobs around the League.
"He took a rag-tag bunch of DBs in 2011 and made them perennial All-Pros and Pro Bowlers, and you don't hear his name being mentioned much for D-coordinator jobs and things like that, which I think it should," Sherman said in January of Richard, who was named Seattle's defensive coordinator yesterday. "We obviously know what kind of coach he is and what he's done, but obviously everybody else doesn't."
Richard takes over the Seahawks' defense from Dan Quinn, who accepted the head coaching gig at the Atlanta Falcons the day after the Seahawks' 28-24 Super Bowl XLIX defeat against the New England Patriots.
Richard, age 35, came to the NFL with Pete Carroll in 2010 and spent one season as an assistant defensive backs coach before taking the reigns of the Seattle secondary the past three seasons, where he's helped sculpt the foundation of the Seahawks' "Legion of Boom" defense that includes the All-Pro playmakers Sherman, Kam Chancellor, and Earl Thomas.
"I think his growth with us through that process to where we are now is the reason we respect him so much because he kind of built the giant that we are now with discipline, attention to detail, always being on it, and always keeping us humble and down to earth," Sherman said last month. "Especially in the meeting room and making sure we understand our strengths, our weaknesses, what we do well, and we don't do well."
Richard played cornerback for one season at USC when Carroll was coach and later for three seasons with the Seahawks (2002-04). He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant with the Trojans under Carroll and will now direct a unit that ranked No. 1 in the NFL in average points and average yards allowed last season.
"Kris, we go way back to his playing days at USC, as well as here," Carroll said last month during the build-up to Super Bowl XLIX. "Kris has done an extraordinary job. He's an excellent secondary coach. Everything you can look at to evaluate that jumps out at you, the way these guys have achieved, the camaraderie that they have, the high level of play that they've maintained for a long time, the stats and all that kind of stuff. Kris does a fantastic job. He's a real product of our system. He's obviously a guy that we raised up in the system and we're proud of the job that he does. He has gone beyond maybe what normal expectations for such a young career for him.
"We rely on him heavily. He's done a fantastic job for us."
