If you take a look at the advanced statistics or any game tape from the last seven weeks, you’ll see that the Raiders have the worst defense in the NFL, bar none.
How bad is it? The Raiders are last in the NFL in sacks, last in the NFL in takeaways, no interceptions 10 games into the season, ranked second-to-last in third-down defense, and allowing quarterbacks to complete 72 percent of their passes, which is just shy of an NFL record for futility.
Yeah, it stinks.
But is that entirely defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr.’s fault? No, of course not. Every defensive player and coach is part of this debacle.
But it’s not not Ken Norton Jr.’s fault, so the Raiders fired their defensive coordinator after two-plus seasons Tuesday.
After all, someone had to take the fall for the team’s 4-6 start. Someone had to be held accountable for the team being embarrassed by the Patriots last Sunday. Someone’s head had to roll a season of futility on that side of the ball.
Norton was an easy and justifiable scapegoat, but don’t see his firing as a solution to the Raiders’ problems.
This was fan service, plain and simple — Raiders coach Jack Del Rio saying “look, we’re doing something!”
Don’t fall for it.
This isn’t to let Norton off the hook for what had unquestionably been a disastrous turn in charge of the Raiders’ defense — no one can argue that Norton deserved to keep his job — but if Norton was truly what was holding this Raiders team back from being even league-average on defense — if firing Norton will actually solve a single Raiders defensive problem — then why did Del Rio wait until the team had no further margin for error to make the move?
It’s not like the Raiders defense just started playing poorly — they’ve looked like a sieve since Week 2. It’d be coaching malpractice to identify the cause of a main problem and then wait eight weeks to correct it.
And that’s if we pretend this Raiders defense wasn’t bad last year, too — Del Rio would have been justified in firing Norton after last season as well.
But he didn’t. He waited until Nov. 21. And that’s telling:
Norton is out now because Del Rio is finally feeling some pressure on himself and he wanted to relieve it.
Del Rio might be a rah-rah coach in a league that requires tacticians, he might be a terrible radio guest, and he might be the biggest week-to-week impediment to the Raiders becoming a perennially successful team, but he proved again on Tuesday that he is a clever politician when it comes to self-preservation. (How else do you think he hung around in Jacksonville for so long?)
But, again, don’t fall for the trick. Firing Norton, while completely defensible on the surface, is an indictment on Del Rio.
Now Del Rio will spin a narrative about how John Pagano, who was hired as an defensive assistant coach this past offseason, will provide much-needed experience to this Raiders defense as a play caller down the stretch.
He might just do that — he certainly couldn’t be any worse at calling plays than Norton, who I’m not entirely sure called even called plays (unless you consider dropping everyone into quarters coverage and hoping Khalil Mack breaks through a double-team a play).
But where has Pagano’s “experience” been all season? The former Chargers defensive coordinator hasn’t lacked authority since he arrived in Alameda — he’s been effectively operating as part of a three-man defensive coordination staff, alongside Norton and Del Rio, (who was more than happy to say in the preseason that he’d be more involved with coaching the Raiders’ defense — he’s not singing the same tune anymore), and there were no signs of friction in that triumvirate.
Pagano might have landed a promotion Tuesday, but he’s more culpable (though not as culpable as Norton, clearly) for the Raiders’ defensive woes this season than Del Rio lets on.
While we’re at it, so is Del Rio.
The Raiders defensive woes start with personnel — this team had a poor defense last year and hasn’t found a single upgrade to their roster since last January. Bad luck is in play, but even if everything broke right for the Raiders in the injury department, how much different would this team look?
Remember, this is a franchise that desperately signed NoVorro Bowman after the worst team in the NFC cut him mid-season for bad play and a worse attitude, and then, three days later, the Raiders started Bowman and gave him play calling responsibilities.
If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about this Raiders defense, I don’t know what will.
But the personnel isn’t going to get any better — not at this juncture of the season, anyway — and the coaches are responsible for the defense’s failure as well.
Just don’t pretend the buck started and stopped on defense with Norton. He was stripped of some power this past offseason when Pagano was hired — an obvious precursor to Tuesday’s firing.
No, Norton is out because someone had to go and he was the easiest person to “relieve of their duties”, particularly after Sunday’s performance.
But Sunday’s performance wasn’t an outlier, and it won’t be the last time this Raiders defense is carved up this season.
The Raiders defense will improve with Norton out of the picture — it can’t get any worse and two bad teams are about to come to town. (New Broncos quarterback Paxton Lynch is up first!)
Maybe Pagano will move Khalil Mack around in formations, something that’s long overdue. Maybe Pagano finally solve the Raiders’ defensive communication issues — something he was tasked with when he was hired and is yet to complete. But even if he doesn’t do those things, Pagano can’t be any worse for the Raiders than Norton was.
But the point still stands: firing Norton, while justified and probably long overdue, isn’t a solution to the Raiders prolific problems — it’s merely a short-term distraction from them.
