Ken Norton Jr. becomes the latest Seattle Seahawks fall guy
Back to the Seattle Seahawks
After a strange one-week layover as San Francisco’s assistant head coach, he returned to Seattle as defensive coordinator for the 2018 season. Over the last three years, Norton led a feast or famine defense most of the time.
Fans were frustrated by the lack of a pass rush, and opponents piling up yards in his “bend, don’t break” scheme. The once-mighty LOB became DOA. It sure looked like the situation was more of an overmatched coordinator not able to do the job right?
Maybe not.
The Seattle Seahawks’ secondary was falling apart for several seasons, even before Norton arrived. Additionally, the defensive line dwindled to mediocre at best as more and more resources were allocated to the offense. Pete Carroll designed the defense and the scheme, and John Schneider provided the players. It was Ken Norton’s job to make it work. When he didn’t, all the blame fell on him.
Last season Seattle added Carlos Dunlap and Jamal Adams. After Adams returned from injury and Dunlap got acclimated, Seattle’s defense became one of the NFL’S best, helped them win an NFC West title, and hosted the Los Angeles Rams in the wild card round. If Norton takes the blame for his team’s first half struggles, he deserves credit for adjusting the scheme and getting things on track in the second half of the year.