Is it Time for Seahawks to Part Ways with Ken Norton Jr.?

Well-respected by players, replacing Norton wouldn’t sit well with everyone and he doesn't deserve all the blame. But after his defense regressed in nearly every category last season, Seattle may not have a choice if it wants to get back to the Super Bowl.

I want to launch this opinion piece with a disclaimer: I’ve been a staunch supporter of Ken Norton Jr. throughout his two seasons as defensive coordinator for the Seahawks and I believe he’s a good football coach.

A likeable man who had great success coaching linebackers during Seattle’s back-to-back Super Bowl seasons, Norton remains extremely popular with his players. When he’s been under fire, which has been quite often in the past several months, I’ve searched for any evidence I can find to defend him.

But as the 2019 season progressed, basing arguments on statistics as well as film study, I found it far more difficult to be encouraged by his performance. In fact, I think it is time for a change.

Don’t get me wrong – Norton isn’t the only coach who deserves criticism. At the end of the day, coach Pete Carroll isn’t blameless for Seattle’s defensive regression this past season. Norton is running his scheme and while it remains unclear how much input he has on play calls during games, he’s heavily involved in the game planning process.

But the buck stops with Norton, who has been charged with the duty of making defensive adjustments and maximizing the talents of his personnel. Far too many times this year, he failed at both.

The Seahawks surrendered nearly 25 points per game in 2019, finishing 22nd in the NFL in scoring defense, the second-lowest ranking during the Carroll era. The only year they were worse? In 2010, well before the arrival of the “Legion of Boom,” they gave up 25.4 points per game in Carroll’s first season.

A multitude of factors played into Seattle’s defensive decline, starting with the team’s inability to pressure opposing quarterbacks. Even after signing Ziggy Ansah in free agency and trading for Jadeveon Clowney in August, the team finished second-to-last in sacks and 31st in pressure rate, dismal numbers for a group featuring plenty of talent.

Schematically, Norton couldn’t find a way to get his edge rushers on track, which negatively impacted defensive tackle Jarran Reed once he returned from suspension in Week 7. As a result, Seattle became more reliant on the blitz early in the season and Mychal Kendricks led the team in sacks at one point.

From a personnel standpoint, choosing not to unleash Shaquem Griffin as a situational pass rusher sooner also loomed large. The speedy linebacker made an immediate impact once he started seeing snaps in Week 10, finishing with a sack, four quarterback hits, and seven pressures on just 110 total defensive snaps.

Playing a large role in their disappointing 26th-ranked run defense by DVOA, the Seahawks also failed to find answers for defending outside runs such as toss runs, jet sweeps, and reverses, consistently surrendering big yardage from the edge to the boundary.

“We were not consistent,” Carroll said when assessing Seattle’s defense. “Too many explosive plays of various natures. For the most part, we had problems on the edge. We had containment issues. We found that the offenses really put the ball on the perimeter against us a lot.”

Sticking with base personnel featuring three linebackers on the field, Norton tried to adjust for this by overhanging a linebacker off the edge in 5-2 and 6-1 looks. But the adaptation didn’t work as envisioned, as teams such as the Rams, 49ers, and Packers continued to gash the Seahawks on the perimeter.

Looking at Seattle’s pass defense, the team finished a mediocre 20th in EPA per play and 29th in success rate. After years of ranking among the league’s elite in these categories, the Seahawks nearly hit rock bottom in 2019 and if not for 16 interceptions, those numbers could have looked far worse.

Throughout the course of the season, Norton always seemed to be a step behind opposing offensive coordinators. Early in the season, master schemers such as Sean McVay and Zac Taylor found ways to exploit Seattle’s Cover 3 schemes out of base personnel.

And as Matty Brown analyzed so eloquently, Norton failed to make necessary adjustments in Seattle’s divisional round loss to Green Bay, allowing Aaron Rodgers to pick apart man-to-man coverage on several key third down opportunities. Again, Matt Lefleur, who comes from the same coaching tree as McVay, held the advantage.

During the 2018 season, Norton seemed to do a better job of adapting personnel to meet Seattle’s needs each week. In a win over Minnesota on Monday Night Football, for example, he mixed in a ton of dime and bandit packages with six or seven defensive backs on the field. A similar strategy yielded reasonable success in a win over Kansas City a few weeks later.

But such creativity and innovation wasn’t anywhere to be found this year. And much of it falls on the fact the Seahawks played over 50 percent of their defensive snaps out of base personnel, putting their linebackers in tougher spots in coverage and struggling to match up with opposing tight ends and running backs in the passing game.

For what it’s worth, the idea to play more base defense was Carroll’s idea to begin with. He deserves a share of the criticism for the final results and while they won’t be used as an excuse, injuries were without a doubt a factor in the defensive difficulties.

Ultimately, it seems unlikely Carroll will move on from Norton, who has been a key member of his coaching staff dating back to his time at USC. He’s as loyal to his assistants as any head coach in the NFL, sometimes to a fault. That's why it was surprising he actually jettisoned offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and line coach Tom Cable two years ago.

When asked about possible staff changes on the horizon in his final press conference of the season, Carroll immediately shot the idea down, saying, “Nothing to talk about, no.”

Just as with players on the field, continuity with coaching staffs matter. It's understandable why Carroll would maybe have reservations about making such a move, especially considering Norton did a solid job in his first year as coordinator.

But whether fair to Norton or not, it appears that the Seahawks need a defensive makeover spearheaded by fresh, new ideas from a coach coming from outside of Carroll’s coaching tree. There’s talent at all three levels of the defense, and yet, the unit inexplicably ranked among the league’s worst in far too many categories last season.

For Seattle to truly make the most of Russell Wilson’s remaining prime seasons and get back to the Super Bowl, such defensive ineptitude can’t happen again. Though dismissing Norton wouldn’t sit well with all players and I believe he's a viable candidate to bounce back elsewhere, sometimes unpopular decisions are the ones that must be made to take the next step forward.