Grading the Seattle Seahawks’ new coaching hires

Defensive coordinator

Out: Kris Richard

In: Ken Norton Jr.

I want to be clear here, Richard was not a failure as a defensive coordinator. As I said before, two of his three defenses ranked in the top three in points allowed. After the first Arizona Cardinals matchup in week ten – the game in which the Seahawks lost Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor for the year – Seattle was giving up an average of 18.3 points per game. If they had ended this way, they would have ranked fourth in the NFL in points allowed in 2017.

Sensing a theme here? Richard was not a bad coach. And the Dallas Cowboys, who hired Richard to be their defensive backs coach, will be better with him.

But Carroll wanted to make a change back to Norton Jr. The players seem to like Norton Jr. a lot as well. And his coaching style is different than Richard’s. And to be honest, Seattle seemed to be missing an edge, for lack of a better term, to the defense the last couple of years. Norton Jr. should return that and that may be a very good thing.

The issue is that the defenses that Norton Jr. coordinated in Oakland were bad. Was it due to his coaching? Or just because he did not have enough good players? 12s will quickly find out.

And Carroll also hired someone he is extremely familiar with in Norton Jr. Again, if Carroll is leaving soon, he is going out his way.

Grade from Richard to Norton Jr.: C-