Report: Seahawks fire 2nd coordinator in as many days

This could be quite a week.

After firing offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell on Tuesday, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll is reportedly also open to a change at defensive coordinator. Several sources are reporting that the team is willing to let Kris Richard leave for a similar position at another team if one becomes available. The tone of the news seems to imply that a change could be made at defensive coordinator regardless.

Quarterbacks coach Carl Smith is also involved in the rumors.

Richard played for Carroll at USC in 2001, before being drafted by Seattle in the third round. He went back to USC as a coach in 2008, then followed Carroll to the Seahawks in 2010. So he’s spent his entire coaching career under Carroll, plus one year as a player, and three years with the Seahawks as as defensive back. He’s the third defensive coordinator in Seattle for Carroll, but unfortunately the one who has had the least success. That may be his fault to some degree, but there were also notable injuries to Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, and Cliff Avril unlike anything that Gus Bradley or Dan Quinn had to endure.

Bradley surely did not have a high degree of success as the defensive coordinator until the team drafted Sherman in 2011, then signed Avril and Michael Bennett in 2013 to really set it off. However, Richard may be a verifiable source of consternation for the Seahawks finishing 13th in defensive DVOA after being a consistent top-3 unit.

Smith, 69, has worked for Carroll as the QBs coach since 2011.

Update: Softy is now reporting that Richard has been fired