The conversation takes place throughout the week inside the Seattle Seahawks training facility. A group of four or five throwing out suggestions and discussing whether their idea can actually be executed.By the time Friday rolls around Shaquem Griffin Jersey , a final decision has been made and the group spends part of the day seeing if they can pull off the plan successfully if the opportunity presents itself on game day."They're actually a group effort. We all put our two cents in and come up with something," Seattle wide receiver David Moore said. "(We'll) come up with something, 'Hey we can throw this in, maybe this will look good,' and then there you go."The talk isn't about a play or scheme. Instead, it's about what has become a must-see event anytime the Seahawks wide receivers find the end zone. Their touchdown celebrations have drawn attention around the NFL and set a standard they're trying to top each week."At first, it was all just about having fun, right? ... It has become an expectation," wide receiver Doug Baldwin said. "Now everybody's asking us what's coming up next, but first and foremost we've got to score so let's take care of the football aspect of it first and then just have fun if it comes along."The group of receivers 鈥?Baldwin, Moore, Jaron Brown and Tyler Lockett primarily 鈥?may not come close to leading the league in catches because of Seattle's run-first offense. But when any of the four find the end zone, getting past the goal line is just the beginning.It started in London when the Seahawks beat Oakland and Brown caught a touchdown on Seattle's opening drive. Brown at first briefly celebrated by himself before being joined by Baldwin, Lockett and Moore with an ode to "Drumline" and a fight scene from the movie that was released in 2002.Two weeks later after Lockett caught a TD in Detroit, it was an ode to baseball , the World Series and Nolan Ryan when Baldwin, the hitter, charged Lockett, the pitcher, and was knocked out in the process.Against the Chargers, it was "The Four Heartbeats ," which was a tribute to the 1991 movie "The Five Heartbeats." Each wide receiver showed off a bit of his dance moves and Brown 鈥?who caught the touchdown 鈥?ended up getting the "featured" role at the end of the routine. It's the celebration most say was the best."I told them from the jump, 'Yeah that's not going to work.' Because you have to be on beat with that and you all aren't going to hear each other," running back Mike Davis said. "It actually looked good. I was surprised by that."And last week in the victory over the Packers, tight end Nick Vannett was added to the mix following Baldwin's TD catch. The celebration this time : "Swag Surfin'.""I don't think it went as well as we wanted it to," Baldwin said.There was supposed to be one more celebration thrown into the recent mix, but as Baldwin said, "Tyler screwed it up." After Lockett's 23-yard touchdown reception against the Los Angeles Rams on Nov. 11, there was supposed to be another group performance. But before everyone could gather, Lockett handed the ball to boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., who was in an end zone suite.That celebration was supposed to be specific to the Rams game and was not carried over to the following week. It's another sign of how serious and how much fun this group is having.And no, it's not taking away from their preparation for what's important 鈥?the actual game 鈥?including this week's matchup against Carolina that has major NFC playoff implications."It's minutes Michael Dickson Jersey , but obviously you guys know when we focus in on something, we get focused in on something so it doesn't take us too long to get it down," Baldwin said. Back in a time where being a coach for the Seattle Seahawks under Pete Carroll used to mean something, Ken Norton, Jr. was hired away by Jack Del Rio to be the defensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders in 2015. Norton had spent 11 years with Carroll, including the previous five for the Seahawks as linebackers coach under Gus Bradley and Dan Quinn, with back-to-back Super Bowl appearances.When Quinn left after Seattle’s second straight season of winning the conference, Carroll hired Kris Richard to take over as defensive coordinator, while Norton went to the Raiders. The two assistants saw their paths take different directions from that point forward, but now as things have come full circle, Norton suddenly looks to be “ahead” of his longtime colleague with USC and the Seahawks.But really isn’t just about timing and talent?Oakland went 3-13 and finished 32nd in points allowed in 2014, which is why they fired Dennis Allen (and replacement Tony Sparano), and hired Del Rio. That’s where Norton came in and he helped the Raiders improve to 22nd in points allowed, with 16 more sacks than they had the year before, and a notably better pass defense. All because of Norton, right?Probably a lot more to do with second-year linebacker Khalil Mack actually, who went from three sacks to 15. And as we’ve seen, Mack doesn’t need a certain coach in order to be productive. Not that the Raiders had a super talented defense (Charles Woodson, Aldon Smith, Malcolm Smith, David Amerson, Dan Williams, Mario Edwards), but they also weren’t super good. They were just a little better.Then they weren’t.Then in September of 2016, Del Rio reportedly took playcalling away from Norton following a terrible start to the season by the defense; they gave up over 1,000 yards over the first two games. They stopped giving up 500 yards per game, but the Oakland defense was still among the worst in the NFL, even after adding Bruce Irvin and Reggie Nelson, probably because many other starters were still very bad. The Raiders finished dead last in net yards per pass attempt allowed. They did go 12-4, but lost badly in the first round of the playoffs. Maybe it’s a different story if not for Derek Carr’s broken leg, but the defense still stood no shot of helping them through that gauntlet.After a 4-6 start last season, Oakland fired Norton Alex McGough Jersey , severing ties completely. They had forced just five turnovers in 10 games. He hit the open market as a coach who wasn’t good enough to even improve the Oakland Raiders defense. Not a good place to be in.Luckily enough, Carroll didn’t care about any of his Oakland issues. He knew Norton for over a decade and he knew that he had the talent for a good defense. Isn’t that really the majority of what you need?Richard had the Seahawks back at their number one ranking for scoring defense in 2015, getting through a bad wild card game in Minnesota before losing on the road to the Carolina Panthers; they gave up 31 first half points to the Panthers but a significant problem that day was incompetence by the offense and then Seattle shut Carolina down in the second half. The Seahawks were third in points allowed in 2016, including first in yards per carry allowed. Quarterbacks had a rating of just 85 against Seattle, with only 16 touchdown passes.The Seahawks held the Detroit Lions to six in a wild card win, but again lost badly on the road in the divisional round.Things finally took a downward turn in 2017, with Seattle finishing 13th in points allowed and surrendering 30+ five times. However, there was a significant change that year: No Cliff Avril for 12 games, no Richard Sherman or Kam Chancellor for seven, Earl Thomas missed two games and was recovering from a broken leg, K.J. Wright was out for the defense’s worst game in years.It was a lack of talent.Carroll decided to shake things up — this is more the cause for Richard’s firing than anything, I believe — and found his old friend on the coaching free agent market. Now where are the Seahawks, Richard, and Norton?Well, somewhat quietly Norton has certainly raised his stock, hasn’t he? Seattle is ninth in points allowed, seventh in yards allowed, fourth in net yards per pass attempt allowed, and has a top-10 ranking in DVOA again. What’s the difference between the 2018 Seahawks and all of his Raiders defenses that weren’t as good? Well, Oakland had Mack, and Seattle has had an actual defense.That obviously changes now with the injury to Thomas. And if the Seahawks’ pass defense gets worse week-to-week, we’ll know why. If Norton’s resume goes from “coached a top-10 defense” to “helped sink a top-10 defense,” it’ll be because he didn’t have as much talent to end the year as he did to start it. Norton may be a great coach — whatever that even means — but coaches are only as good as the talent that they can put on the field. Bill Belichick is famous for overturning players-not-named-Brady all the time, but less talked about is the decade he’s spent with Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung as his safeties. If the players work, they work. If they don’t, you’re out of a job.Richard is drawing praise for his work with the Dallas Cowboys secondary as an assistant there now, including the Pro Bowl-caliber season for Byron Jones at cornerback. Certainly Richard’s knowledge has something to do with that, but it would be for nothing if Jones wasn’t one an extremely special athlete with the capacity to play at this level. And eventually, Richard will get another chance as a defensive coordinator too, perhaps leading to a head coaching opportunity.His best way back there will be to continue to follow the talent.
