In 1988 with the Houston Oilers, former Falcons coach and defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville gave Richard Smith his first NFL job.
Smith, 59, can now say that his football journey has come full circle, as he’ll be in the position once held by Glanville.
“I was real fortunate starting off with the Houston Oilers under Jerry Glanville,” Smith said. “He gave me a great opportunity to come in there and coach tight ends and run their special teams. I believe I was there for five years, and we won a lot of football games.”
Smith, who was Denver’s linebackers coach for the past four seasons under John Fox, has a major revitalization project on his hands. The Falcons’ defense finished ranked last in the NFL in five key categories and 31st in another.
They were last in yards per game (398.3), yards per play (6.14), passing yards per game (279.9), yards per pass play (7.91), first downs (22.4) and third-down percentage (46.8 percent). The defense was 31st in sacks per pass attempt (3.89 percent).
When you don’t have a pass rush in a passing league, stats can get really ugly like that.
Perhaps out of respect for the former coaching regime, the new Falcons coaches have made a point to say they are looking forward and don’t want to reflect on the defensive meltdown that led to the dismissal of Mike Smith, the coach with the most wins in franchise history.
Richard Smith has been down this defensive coordinator road before. He was Nick Saban’s coordinator with the Miami Dolphins in 2005 and was the Houston Texans’ coordinator from 2006-08.
An old-school football guy, Smith is not prone to make many grand pronouncements — unlike Glanville — about how he would get the defense headed in the right direction.
“I’ve got to be myself,” Smith said. “But what’s happening is that I’m very fortunate to be in here running (coach) Dan (Quinn’s) system. It’s really outstanding. I love everything and what it’s about.”
Smith’s best season as a coordinator was in 2005 with the Dolphins. They finished ranked 18th in yards allowed per game (317.4) and 15th in scoring defense (19.8 points per game).
His Houston units ranked 24th, 24th and 22nd in yards allowed and 25th, 22nd and 27th in scoring defense.
But Quinn has brought the defensive principles with him from Seattle that allowed the Seahawks to flourish. Smith has embraced those and has worked to instill those concepts into the Falcons this offseason.
“It’s been a great learning experience,” Smith said. “Every day, I’m learning something new through him. There’s a lot merit to the system and what we do. We try to teach fundamentals, effort, techniques, turnovers and tackling every day on a consistent basis. The players are responding very well to all of the coaching that’s going on.”
Quinn liked that Smith had extensive experience coaching offense, defense and special teams. He also appreciated Smith’s no-nonsense approach to football matters.
“He’s another guy, when I talked about Bryan Cox and the definition of grit, I think of Richard Smith in that way, too,” Quinn said. “He’s always challenging and trying to draw out the most in the guys.”
Quinn is still working through how the defensive operation will work. He may call the plays, but for now, it’s a collaborative effort between Quinn, Smith and assistant head coach/defensive passing-game coordinator Raheem Morris.
“That’s all up to Dan,” Smith said. “It’s his system and whatever he likes to do. Right now, in practice, we’ve been doing it in terms of coaches on the field, myself and Raheem Morris is right there alongside of us.”
Quinn believes the synergy between Smith and Morris could pay big dividends for the defense.
“I thought what a great balance between Richard and Raheem, you have one guy with the front-seven experience of Rich and the pass-game experience with Raheem,” Quinn said. “I thought those two guys would make a great partnership.”
Morris, the former head coach of Tampa Bay from 2009-11, in very familiar with the NFC South. After Tampa Bay, Morris served a stint as Washington’s defensive backs coach from 2012-14.
“We are getting these guys ready to go out there and compete,” Morris said. “That’s been a high priority for us. See who wants to go out there and compete. See who wants to go out there and strain. See who goes out there and show grit. We really like what we are seeing from our guys.”
In the end, Smith hopes to have an attacking defense that can create turnovers.
“That’s what we stress,” Smith said. “Every single snap is an opportunity to get the ball back.”
The Falcons had the eighth-ranked offense last season. The defensive brain trust knows that their chances for success are tied to the improvement of the defense.
“The thing we’re fortunate about is that our offense has done a great job,” Smith said. “We are playing against one of the top offenses in the National Football League and that makes it very competitive.”
Smith knows not to get too excited about offseason workouts, but he likes how things are coming together.
“People sometimes look certain ways in shorts, but once you get the pads on, there is a personality change,” Smith said. “I think that’s going to come with time. … I like the strides that we’ve made learning the system, playing fast and physical.”
