Report: Washington Commanders to hire Ken Norton Jr. as linebackers coach

Ken Norton Jr. is expected to join the Washington Commanders as their linebackers coach next season, according to NFL insider Tom Pelissero.

He previously held defensive coordinator positions for the Las Vegas Raiders and Seattle Seahawks. Most recently, he coached under Chip Kelly as linebackers coach at UCLA since 2022.

Norton, a former first-ream all-pro linebacker in 1995, is most notably the first — and only — player in NFL history to win the Super Bowl in three consecutive seasons. He was a member of the 1993 and 1994 Dallas Cowboys teams that went back-to-back, and went all the way with the San Francisco 49ers in 1995. He won a fourth Super Bowl coaching with the Seahawks in 2014.

The former star linebacker is a strong hire for the Commanders, who will provide a strong presence in head coach Dan Quinn’s defensive staff.

Quinn, who was named the next head coach of the Washington Commanders on Feb. 1, previously served as Cowboys defensive coordinator for the past three seasons. Dallas’ defense took a big jump in 2023, finishing as the No. 5 ranked unit in the league. Prior to joining the Cowboys, Quinn spent five plus seasons as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons.

He went 43-42, leading Atlanta to a Super Bowl defeat in 2016. The Falcons relieved him of his duties after an 0-5 start to the 2020 season. Quinn famously coached the “Legion of Boom” defense in Seattle, helping lead the Seahawks to a Super Bowl victory in 2013 — where he coached alongside Norton.

Commanders moving forward with Dan Quinn as HC

They now pivot to Quinn, who will look to rebuild the Commanders alongside newly hired general manager Adam Peters. The Commanders are coming off a season in which they finished 4-13 and therefore hold the No. 2 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Washington is expected to pick its quarterback of the future, whether that’s USC’s Caleb Williams, LSU’s Jayden Daniels or North Carolina’s Drake Maye.

The Cowboys will now have to find a replacement for Quinn, who was highly regarded within the locker room. 

“That’s like my OG, for real,” Cowboys outside linebacker Micah Parsons said last month. “He means a lot to me, not only because it’s just about football. I think Q — we were talking today, because he did the college thing like [Nick] Saban — he said ‘yeah’ and I said, ‘You’re just such a great mentor.’ I think he does a great job of finding ways for you to love the game and finding ways to go around the game.