Former Seattle Seahawks defensive back Richard Sherman thinks he knows why the team had started to slide a bit in recent seasons under coach Pete Carroll.
Sherman told the Uninterrupted’s “Thomahawk Show” that Carroll’s philosophy, perfected in college where there is regular roster turnover, had grown tired to Seahawks veterans who had been with the team for virtually his entire tenure.
“I think it was kind of philosophical on his part,” Sherman said of Carroll, via Brady Henderson of ESPN. “A lot of us have been there six, seven, eight years, and his philosophy is more built for college. Four years, guys rotate in, rotate out, and so we had kind of heard all his stories, we had kind of heard every story, every funny anecdote that he had. And honestly because he just recycles them. And they’re cool stories, they’re great for team chemistry and building, etcetera, etcetera. But we had literally heard them all. We could recite them before he even started to say them.”
Sherman said there was more to it, however — that in his view, the Seahawks have gotten away from their principles in how they value their key players.
“It’s just unfortunate,” Sherman said. “At the end of the day it just seems like — I don’t know how to say it — they’ve kind of lost their way a little bit in terms of how they see players and how they evaluate players. It was kind of an odd situation because we’ve obviously had players injured multiple times, multiple years and this was the first time that anyone who has been injured of the core players has been cut.
“I think at the end of the day it just became an issue of devaluing core players, players that are playing at a high level and really being curious about younger players and curious about the unknown,” Sherman said. “They say, ‘Maybe this guy’s going to be the next guy,’ instead of saying, ‘Hey, you have Hall of Fame talents in your secondary. How about you ride this out.’ It’d be like Pittsburgh saying, ‘Troy Polamalu is great, but let’s figure out what this guy behind him has.'”
It’s safe to say Sherman has some issues with how Seattle handled the end of his tenure. That may be a factor in why he chose to sign for one of their direct rivals quite quickly.
