Seahawks lose third defensive assistant as Raiders hire Ken Norton Jr. as defensive coordinator

The Raiders on Friday made official what had been rumored for the last week: Linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr. has left the Seattle Seahawks and the man who brought him into USC and NFL coaching, Pete Carroll, to become Oakland’s defensive coordinator.

The move comes four days after defensive coordinator Dan Quinn left the Seahawks to become the new head coach of the Atlanta Falcons.

The Seahawks now need to replace their coordinator and a linebackers coach on defense, plus defensive backs assistant Marquand Manuel is reportedly joining Quinn’s staff in Atlanta.

NBC Sports reported this week Quinn tried to get Seahawks defensive backs coach Kris Richard to join the Falcons’ staff too, but that Richard chose to stay in Seattle to get consideration as Quinn’s replacement.

Friday, KING-5 television in Seattle reported Richard is going to be Seattle’s new defensive coordinator. The team did not respond to messages from the News Tribune seeking to confirm Richard is indeed Quinn’s replacement.

The Seahawks’ players are rallying around a familiar place with these latest coaching defections: Themselves.

“I’m sad and love ken norton but players play and coaches coach we will be fine!” Seahawks linebacker Bruce Irvin tweeted Friday.

Norton reunites with former Cowboys teammate Jack Del Rio, who recently became the Raiders’ head coach.

“Jack and I are old friends,” Norton told reporters in the Bay Area after Friday’s announcement. “We’re old teammates from the early Dallas Cowboys days and we’ve certainly kept in contact over the years. I’ve been watching his career and obviously he’s been watching my career. We’ve always talked about being able to put my time and energy and knowledge together as well as his and really come together and make a winner.”

Asked if he’s been looking forward to being a coordinator for a while, Norton said: “No question. One thing, I can really take my hat off to Pete Carroll. He’s really done a great job of when we’re there with him, he’s always preparing us to be coordinators, to be head coaches. He’s always having us look forward and do things that are important for us to continue our careers and keep improving ourselves. He’s always been preparing us for the next step.”

Last Wednesday at the Seahawks’ hotel in Phoenix four days before the Super Bowl the News Tribune asked Norton what his career aspirations were beyond this season. He’s never been above a position coach since Carroll brought the former Super Bowl-champion linebacker with Dallas and the San Francisco 49ers into coaching in 2004 as an assistant linebackers coach at USC.

Some were wondering if he was going to replace Quinn as the Seahawks’ coordinator.

“Now, see, you are trying to create a distraction,” he said, with a stern look on that Wednesday in Phoenix. “We are trying to prepare for this game.”

Norton was known within the Seahawks’ locker room as being a masterful motivator of his young, impressionable linebackers, and he always loyally spoke in glowing terms about each one, no matter their relative strengths, weaknesses, standout plays or mistakes.

But he remains something of an unknown strategically and how he will fit in Oakland as the architect assimilating a multifaceted unit, something he’s never done.

Norton said Friday the Oakland defense will be a collaborative effort between himself and Del Rio, but the plan is for him to call the plays on game days.

“I have certain ideas that I have that I know that work,” Norton said. “He has certain ideas that he has that he knows that work. We’re going to bring them together and obviously make them the Raider way.”