Just days before the opener, Sheldon Richardson was traded from New York Jets to the Seattle Seahawks. Last week I took a look at what he did in his 2015 season and this week — as you’ll see in the video above — it’s time to see how he looks in a Seattle uniform. Unfortunately, his first game was a disappointing season opener where the Seahawks failed to score a touchdown on the day and struggled mightily on offense against the rival Green Bay Packers.
The Seattle defense, however, looked as good as its been in a few years now with Earl Thomas healthy again, and a monstrous defensive line nicknamed “Death Row,” which includes the new addition of Richardson. The last time the team traveled to play in Lambeau, they notched only one sack and it was after the game was already out of reach. This time, however, the Seahawks had 4 sacks by halftime from a much-improved defensive line and a healthy secondary.
Outside of one bad play early in the game where he got blown off the ball, Richardson's only other issue was tackling when coming off a block. On multiple plays, he was in the right position and came off a block to attempt a tackle and just can’t bring the runner to the ground.
Overall though, Sheldon Richardson had an impressive outing in his first game as a Seahawk. He was instrumental in wreaking havoc in the Packers backfield and helping to shut them out in the first half of the game. He used a combination of pass rushing moves to beat the interior of the Green Bay offensive line, while being strong at he point of attack on running plays and maintaining his gap integrity.
Sheldon Richardson vs the Packers thread, gifs incoming #Seahawks
— Coleman Crawford (@Coleman3SD) September 11, 2017
If you would like to see more plays from Richardson and the entire Seahawks defensive line the the Packers game then feel free to check out the tweet above.