Ken Norton Jr....

[Fade]

Where were all the coaches available to replace him ? Not much .

Dan Quinn, the best DC in Seahawks history was available. Quinn compliments Pete very well with his D-Line background. But you are indeed correct, keeping your buddy around to compare Pez is the more prudent choice.

Dan Quinn got scooped up pretty quick, put Norton on the street and no one would want him as a DC. It's all good though , if Pete can make it work and they win.

 

[Own The West]

Norton is here and Schotty is gone because the defense improved and the offense regressed. It's that simple.

Why the defense was so bad out of the gate was because we had 6 new starters (Mayowa, Irvin, Brooks, Dunbar, Adams and Blair). Then three of those went down in the first three weeks, so we were in "training camp" during the season.

Adams and Dunlap (re)joined in week 8 (while Griffin went down), but the secondary began to gel and the defense began living up to its potential.

There's no reason to believe that we won't start out playing at a high level even with Griffin gone as we turned it around with him out of the lineup last year. It bodes well if one of the newcomers can beat Flowers out in training camp, but even if they don't I believe the pass rush will be improved and that will make everyone's job easier.

I'm sure other teams had new starters too, no?

[tweet]https://twitter.com/SharpFootball/status/1369024246069030913[/tweet]

Those are more forgiving QBs to be sure, but we had some really bad blown coverages in the first half of the season. Adams came in and over-pursued everything. It took some time for guys to learn their roles and build cohesion. And it wasn't 1 or 2 new guys where their neighbor could help them out. Over half the starters were new and you would see Bobby and Griffin trying to get guys set and explain their assignments almost every play before the snap.

I guess we'll see how they perform in the first half of this season. It's going to be tough out of the gate.

 

[Jerhawk]

Why did the defense improve so drastically in the second half of last season?

What specifically and exactly was KNJ's role in the failures of the first half and the improvement in the second? Can that improvement continue?

I have serious doubts that fans on this site can answer these questions. But speculate away!

Here's my amateur analysis to answer this:

1. Better communication
2. Cohesiveness as the season progressed
3. Dunlap
4. More bump and run coverage by the corners

 

[BASF]

For me the biggest indictment on Norton is that it took nine games for him and the defensive coaches to sit down with each player individually to get them assignment correct. It was very obvious early in the year that half the defense was trying to do too much and making it difficult for the others.

We can absolutely upgrade the defensive coaching staff especially the position coaches. The D-Line coach in particular seems to be weak as the players have not improved in technique or moves much since Norton was hired.

 

[Jville]

^^^

That's an excellent observation.

The defense was so very undisciplined in the early half of the year. Abandoning assignments early in pursuit of playing "hero ball". Once assignment discipline was restored, the defense played more like a team and realized much better results.

 

[LTH]

Where were all the coaches available to replace him ? Not much .

Dan Quinn, the best DC in Seahawks history was available. Quinn compliments Pete very well with his D-Line background. But you are indeed correct, keeping your buddy around to compare Pez is the more prudent choice.

Dan Quinn got scooped up pretty quick, put Norton on the street and no one would want him as a DC. It's all good though , if Pete can make it work and they win.

I dont think KNJ is the best DC the Hawks have ever had but I think he is going to be.... I think he is developing like everybody else on the team... Carroll must see promise in him...success as a whole is rarely over night in the NFL..


LTH

 

[chris98251]

Where were all the coaches available to replace him ? Not much .

Dan Quinn, the best DC in Seahawks history was available. Quinn compliments Pete very well with his D-Line background. But you are indeed correct, keeping your buddy around to compare Pez is the more prudent choice.

Dan Quinn got scooped up pretty quick, put Norton on the street and no one would want him as a DC. It's all good though , if Pete can make it work and they win.

I dont think KNJ is the best DC the Hawks have ever had but I think he is going to be.... I think he is developing like everybody else on the team... Carroll must see promise in him...success as a whole is rarely over night in the NFL..


LTH

We will never know how good Norton is till he is giving real control, never had it in Oakland, Del Rio ran that show, has not had it here because Pete has his hand prints not just finger prints on it as well.

 

[Chawker]

Our defense was pretty bad last year but, after Dunlap joined us things changed. Having the right DE's made a big difference, we've been hurting in that department ever scene we lost Frank Clark to KC.

I liked it when KN was running a variant of buddy Ryans 4-6 defense.