Ken Norton, Jr. needs to be fired by the Seahawks. He has never been a successful defensive coordinator in any of the seven seasons he has been one in the NFL. Norton, Jr. is probably a good guy and a good linebackers coach. But he should not be a defensive coordinator in the NFL.
We all got fooled a bit by the second half of last season, didn’t we? Seattle’s defense seemed to have made a turnaround after the Seahawks traded for Carlos Dunlap in mid-year and Jamal Adams finally got healthy. But the truth is that Seattle was playing a bunch of games against bad quarterbacks that would have made every defense look good.
The other thing that helped make the defense appear better than it was is that Seattle’s offense was suddenly pretty terrible after starting the year the best in the NFL. The attention turned towards then-offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and Russell Wilson’s turnovers.
But to start 2021, Seattle’s defense looks just as bad as it did to start 2020 and this is with a healthy Jamal Adams and Carlos Dunlap. Seattle’s defense was supposed to be based on a great pass rush with more speed and also hope that the questionable cornerback group would be OK. This might have worked with a different DC but with Norton, Jr. it isn’t going to.
Seahawks should fire Ken Norton, Jr. and replace him with one of these three coaches
Seattle is 24th in yards-allowed-per-rush (4.5), 12th-worst in quarterback pressure percentage (23.4) and 26th in QBR-allowed (108.4). While overall Seattle’s defense wasn’t that good last year, all the numbers listed in the previous sentence are worse than 2020.
Pete Carroll is the head coach, of course, but also the Vice President of Football Operations so he has control over the coaching staff. If Norton, Jr. gets fired during the season (he won’t because Carroll doesn’t work that way) then maybe Carroll should take over the defense. But no matter what, there will be no excuse for bringing Norton, Jr. back in 2022 and here are three candidates who should replace him.
Teryl Austin
Austin has been a defensive coordinator in the NFL with some great results and some not-good ones. The biggest difference between the two is the talent on the ones that were good versus the ones that were bad. While this could be said of probably any coach, my point is that the problems weren’t scheme but talent. With Norton, Jr., Seattle has talent but there seems to be no imagination in how to use that talent.
Austin has been the Steelers Senior Defensive Assistant/secondary coach since 2019. He has helped safety Micah Fitzpatrick (Fitzpatrick was traded to the Steelers midseason in 2019) into a First-Team All-Pro free safety. Seahawks safety Jamal Adams is a great player but a unique talent too and would benefit from Austin coaching him.
Adams is being wasted this season. He blitzes a lot less and stays back in coverage. For Adams to be his most productive, he needs to be moved around to help stop the run and put pressure on opposing quarterbacks. A defense not knowing where Adams is coming from helps the Seattle defense overall. Plus, Adams was extended this offseason and won’t be going anywhere any time soon and will outlast Norton, Jr.
Austin did only last most of one season with the Bengals in 2018 and was fired after his defense gave up 500-plus yards in three straight weeks. But the Bengals had little overall talent on their defense and the teams that put up the yards were the Chiefs, Buccaneers and Saints. No slouches there.
Austin would bring a better idea of how to put pressure on quarterbacks while also improving individual players like Adams.
Dan Quinn
Yes, Quinn is the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys and going to the Seahawks for the same role would mean Dallas has to be OK with it as it is a lateral move. But what if Seattle sweetens the pot by offering Quinn the associate head coach name as well with a hint of a promise that Quinn will become head coach when Pete Carroll decides to retire? Quinn wasn’t a terrible head coach and would be a decent fit with the Seahawks.
But Quinn was a great defensive coach. Yes, he had great players in Seattle. But Quinn is an example of how and why a great defensive coordinator may not have great defenses once he becomes a head coach. I think it’s silly that Carroll gets a lot of blame for Norton, Jr.’s deficiencies. Carroll’s job is to oversee the entire team and not just the defense. A head coach shouldn’t be a defensive coordinator and a head coach.
But a head coach should make decisions to bring in coordinators to run an offense or defense that they see having the best potential results for those units on the team. In this way, Carroll has failed with Norton, Jr. who has never been a truly successful coordinator in the NFL. But Quinn has.
Quinn’s Cowboys defense currently has the 12th-best QBR-allowed in the NFL in 2021 and is 13th in points allowed. Maybe that doesn’t sound great but considering the Dallas defense was terrible in 2020 (ranking 28th in points allowed, 26th in QBR-allowed) and Quinn appears to be fixing the defense fairly quickly while Dallas also lost Byron Jones this offseason says enough.
Quinn is a much better defensive coordinator than Norton, Jr., historically speaking, and maybe Carroll still feels a kinship with Quinn having worked with him before. If Quinn gets brought in, Seattle is better in 2022. If Norton, Jr. is still the Seahawks DC in 2022, Carroll should fire himself.
Kris Richard
Kris Richard has been mistreated in the NFL getting his only chance of being a defensive coordinator with Seattle so far. He was the defensive coordinator for Seattle from 2015 through 2017 and was a very good one. My hopes of his returning to Seattle under Pete Carroll are not great. But without a doubt, of the coaches on this list, Richard needs to be the next DC with the Seahawks.
First, he has the talent to do so. The 2017 season had the Seattle defense finish 13th in scoring but this was after injuries cut short the seasons of Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor. How would anyone truly expect Richard to succeed when so much talent was lost in such a short amount of time? Still, 13th in the NFL is a pretty amazing accomplishment considering all the injuries.
After being let go by the Seahawks after the 2017 season (one of the biggest mistakes Pete Carroll has made), Richard became the defensive backs coach with Dallas. In 2017 Dallas ranked 27th in QBR-allowed. After Richard joined Dallas, the Cowboys ranked 22nd in QBR-allowed in 2018 and 20th in 2019. The secondary was getting better even though the overall talent was not. But Dallas let Richard go after the 2019 season when they brought in a new head coach.
Richard didn’t coach in the 2020 season but was hired by the Saints for this season to be their defensive backs coach. New Orleans currently has the third-best QBR-allowed in the NFL.
One of the main good things about Richard is his players appear to like him a lot and want to play hard for him. But Richard also coached under Carroll and Gus Bradley and Quinn and knows how to run a defense and proved that in his time as DC of the Seahawks. Norton, Jr. needs to be let go and Richard brought back in 2022.