Secondary coach: Kris Richard, Seahawks
Richard played for Pete Carroll at USC, and then went on to a four-year NFL career as a marginal defensive back. Then he asked Carroll for any kind of coaching job on his staff, which led to various promotions within the Trojans’ system and eventually a move to Seattle in 2010 to serve as Carroll’s assistant cornerbacks coach. The assistant label was dropped a year later, making Richard the primary coach responsible for applying Carroll’s pass coverage philosophies on the field. Some may argue that it’s easy to do that when you have Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor on your roster, but Richard helped greatly with the development of those Legion of Boom mainstays and also groomed Seattle’s more lightly regarded defensive backs like Brandon Browner, Byron Maxwell and Jeremy Lane. He’s the Seahawks’ defensive coordinator now, and he’ll be a head coach sooner or later.
