Ken Norton

I was glad and excited when he was added back to the coaching staff. Just curious what the rest of you think how he did his first year as dc. Overall grade and analysis would be appreciated. To me I would give him a solid B. He did not have to much to work with but I think the players have a lot of respect for him and I think he excels in a leadership and the guys play hard for him. I just think this team showed a lot of heart and he had a lot to do with itt. Our inability to stop the run was a thing I was a little surprised at. Beacause normally we were a good team at stopping the run. I blame a lot of that to personal or lack there of than his coaching. I look forward on seeing year number two from him and I'm glad he is back with us.I was just wondering what your thoughts were.

Guess not much lol

The defense was average to bad last season. But the team had an offense that could score and sustain drives so they were not on the field very much.

Dallas exposed them in the playoffs, as much as people want to complain about them not allowing Wilson to throw the ball they gave up a long run at the end of the first half that allowed Dallas to score and they give up a 3rd and 14 that allowed Dallas to score the game-clinching TD.

Norton was never able to figure out the Rams deep crossing passing offense. Hopefully, the Patriots gave him the plan for that.

The good and bad thing about the Seahawks defense is it is simple and allows good players to excel. The bad thing about the Seahawks defense is it needs good players to be effective.

Difficult to evaluate. A defense that is generally poor at rushing the passer, as well as unable to either prevent chunk plays over the deep middle or reliably intercept passes is going to be hard to pass judgement.

To keep that kind of defense respectable seems like it should warrant some praise. This defense has a ways to go.

Most interested to see how secondary begins to reform. Also whether the team can bolster their pass rush either with new rookie talent or 2nd year improvements to Martin and Ford.

Pass rush and coverage ability often feed off each other. There clearly was room for significant improvement on both ends. Improving one should help the other. Improving both would catapult the defense back to dominant form.

The longer Pete has been in Seattle, the more I realize that assistant coaches on his staff are largely just doing his bidding. Because of this, I find it very difficult to individually assess them and how they are doing.

It's not like Pete allows a lot of individual input and construct from his staff.

Norton is more a manager then a DC, he has input I am sure but it is Pete's defense and always will be. It's his bread and butter and what he enjoys.

Ken Nortons defense is more aggressive than when Kris Richards was here... I look for them to step it up a notch this year... go after the QB a bit more... ..

I really respect what he did. Earl skips the off season and then plays 4 games. Constant shuffling at safety.

Huge personnel turnover with HOF and ProBowl caliber losses in Sherman, Kam, Earl, Richardson, Avril and Bennett. Maxwell was also a steady starter that was lost and essentially KJ too.

A 2nd year CB switches sides and replaces a HOF CB. A 5th round college safety rookie starts every game at CB.

At least the media was impressed with what transpired. The defense wasn't great but considering everything, I was impressed. Norton brought a pass rush and returned the team to a physical defensive identity and a play making defense like the Hawks had during the SB days.

I was a bit worried about Norton when he was hired but he brings a lot more to the table than just a DC. The players really respect him and play hard for him.

IMO he's grown a lot from the time he was the LB coach. Pete made a gutsy decision to fire Richard and bring Ken back.

It paid off well.

Richard was too close to the players not that far removed himself and was their position coach for many, Norton was always a time bomb waiting to get on your butt even as a player, seen snippets of a practice or two and they respect the man and he pushes them hard.

Thanks u guys really value u guys opinions appreciate it! Hope u all have a good day!

FlyingGreg":b7jqy2ji said:

The longer Pete has been in Seattle, the more I realize that assistant coaches on his staff are largely just doing his bidding. Because of this, I find it very difficult to individually assess them and how they are doing.

It's not like Pete allows a lot of individual input and construct from his staff.

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Yes and no, Quinn was by far an elite coordinator to our others. He had great talent yes but he was more aggressive as well.

I put Norton with Richard and Bradley. A decent defensive mind but not someone who is going to elevate our defense. It was simple when they could rush they looked amazing (Oakland, Detroit) .

chris98251":cp4nz2xx said:

Richard was too close to the players not that far removed himself and was their position coach for many, Norton was always a time bomb waiting to get on your butt even as a player, seen snippets of a practice or two and they respect the man and he pushes them hard.

Click to expand...

Spot on here. He is respected I doubt anyone will get in his face, sorry Richard.

Is anyone remember when he head butted Calitro sticking his face in his facemask

Norton wasn't horrible, but I think he needs more to work with. Last season, the DL suffered, not getting after the QB and allowing big runs, hopefully Pete & John use the offseason to address the DL. I also hope Norton can get Griffin to play way better than he did in '18. If they can accomplish that, I think they can make a deep playoff run.

Norton did an OKay job, given what he had, We do have a few holes. I mean the LB core in some ways was a revolving door, and our CB seemed to take a slight step back, and the Safety wise one minute you have ET then you don't. He did a pretty good job overall though

Norton had a very difficult season, rebuilding and retooling. A top level D had it's starting FS, SS, top CB, both top DEs, and it's WOLB stripped from it over the past two seasons through injury, locker room management, bargaining positions, and weak or slow developing youthful replacements. The DLine was shadow of itself and the top pass rusher apparently played injured last season w/o any genuine assistance except from Reed who has proven to be a special addition to the team and another must re-sign.

I thought he did well with the personnel he had, and worked around the multitude of seasonal injuries. The end of the season was sort of ugly as they ran out of gas with many injuries. To me he's a lot better DC than some acknowledge, and a very good motivator as a coach. That said he's running Pete's D and is not given much leash to to do his own thing. Is he a creative defensive wizard, not so much, but he's a good coach and is to me better than Richard was but not better than Quinn.

Better personnel would make him look a lot stronger.

In 2017, Seattle's was ranked T13th in scoring defense with 20.8 pts./game average.

Last year, they were ranked 11th with 21.7 pts./game so I'd say the Ken did his job rather admirably considering all the departures.

:2thumbs: :2thumbs: :2thumbs:

I'm looking forward to seeing what Ken can do in his second year. I thought with all of the departures, injuries, etc. he did a nice job. A few more pieces added to the mix and off we go!