Norton Jr. is fired, replaced by Pagano
Subpar defense costs the coordinator his job
ALAMEDA >> The Raiders have fired defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. 10 games into his third season with Oakland, the team announced Tuesday afternoon.
Head coach Jack Del Rio delivered the news to his team after Tuesday’s walkthrough.
Assistant head coach John Pagano will take over defensive play-calling duties. He served as the Chargers’ defensive coordinator for the previous five seasons.
“After careful thought, I have made a difficult decision to part ways with Ken Norton, Jr. as defensive coordinator,” Del Rio said in a statement. “I have the utmost respect for Ken as a person and as a coach, but I feel that moving John Pagano into the play-
calling role will best utilize his wealth of experience. I appreciate Ken’s passion and commitment to the Raiders since coming aboard and wish him the best going forward.”
The Raiders are the only team in the NFL without an interception and the first team in league history to go seven games without one in a single season, a streak now at 10 games. They rank tied for 21st in average points allowed per game (24.7), 26th in average yards allowed per game (367) and have allowed 27 or more points in half of their games.
Oakland is also tied for last in the NFL with 14 sacks and dead last with six takeaways.
“It’s definitely frustrating, man,” cornerback David Amerson said of the lack of interceptions. “I think that’s one of the big things in this league that determines wins and losses, protecting
the ball and turning the ball over. I mean, as a defense as a whole we’ve got to do a better job of creating turnovers.”
The Raiders are fresh off a 33-8 blowout against the Patriots, which dropped Oakland five spots from eighth to 13th in the AFC standings. The Raiders currently sit third in their division, behind Kansas City (6-4) and Los Angeles (4-6) since the Chargers won at the Coliseum earlier this season.
“Unfortunately in this business, the production in the defense, we haven’t been playing that well,” veteran safety Reggie Nelson said. “So everybody has got their hand in it and we’ve just got to come out and play because it’s going to keep trickling down. It’s production and whoever coach goes with, we’ve still got a job to do.
“The axe came down on everybody. Everybody felt it in this building. We love Norton, regardless. Unfortunately the production wasn’t to a high standard this year and it’s a production league. He’s not playing, we are. It trickled down.”
Shortly after the announcement, Raiders linebacker Bruce Irvin tweeted, “BULL **** .” Norton was Irvin’s position coach with the Seahawks from 2012-14.
On Monday, Del Rio declined to delve into potential staff changes before the season ended. The Broncos fired offensive coordinator Mike McCoy earlier in the day and promoted quarterbacks coach (and last year’s Raiders defensive coordinator) Bill Musgrave. Oakland hosts the Broncos this Sunday.
“We’re not going to get into staff questions this week, although I know (Broncos general manager) John (Elway) opened that up with his move this week,” Del Rio said.
Norton previously coached linebackers in Seattle from 2010-14. The Seahawks beat the Broncos
in Super Bowl XLVIII and lost to the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX. Seattle twice had a vacancy at defensive coordinator but Norton wasn’t promoted. Prior to joining Seattle, Norton coached linebackers at USC.
Del Rio and Norton played together from 198991 for the Cowboys under Jimmie Johnson. Norton was an All-American linebacker at UCLA in 1987 and won three straight Super Bowls as a player from 1992-94 with the Cowboy and 49ers.
Now after the Raiders’ latest defensive letdown, he’s out of a job.
“I mean, we sure could have done some different things,” defensive tackle Justin Ellis said. “(Norton) made some good points while he was here. We played under our talent level, and those things come with consequences.”
In 2016, the Pagano-led Chargers defense tied for the NFL lead with 18 interceptions. Pagano worked with Del Rio in 1997 on the Saints staff.