Two seasons into his Norton's tenure, the Raiders have finished with the 22nd and 25th ranked defenses.
The 2015 defense ranked 26th in passing defense, 13th in rushing defense, and 22nd in points allowed. They were 19th in sacks and 12th in takeaways. Seven times, the defense allowed 29 or more points.
Now for 2016 - Here are the yardage allowed totals for the year, in chronological order — 393, 412, 423, 406, 344, 270, 299, 254, 358, 382, 323, 263, 390, 349.
It took until Week 8 for the Raiders defense to allow less than 344 yards. They allowed under 300 yards just three times, against the 14th, 18th, and 27th ranked offenses. Norton’s defense gave up 382 or more yards eight different times.
The pass rush was nearly non-existent outside of Khalil Mack, finishing with 25 sacks as a team — dead last in the NFL. Mack accounted for 44 percent of the team’s sack production, which is both absurdly impressive for Mack, and absurdly sad for the rest of the defense.
Oakland’s defense was also the 4th most penalized defense in the league, with 1,051 yards on 115 penalties.
I am shocked they want to persist with him & have Phillips groom him - surely Phillips would want to be the main man calling the shots for the Defense???
In his two seasons in Denver, Phillips led the Broncos to the
#1 defense (2015) and the
#4 ranked defense in 2016. Having him in charge of our D would be a huge upgrade. As for just being a consultant to help groom Norton, yeah the D should improve but not to the same degree along with I would be surprised in him accepting that role .... we shall see.