Raiders Hire Ex-Chargers DC John Pagano as Defensive Assistant Coach

The Raiders continue to make moves in regards to the current coaching staff. First they promote Todd Downing as Offensive Coordinator and moving Jake Peetz to quarterbacks coach after releasing Bill Musgrave. They fired defensive backs coach, Marcus Robertson. This is probably the Raiders' biggest addition to the coaching staff besides Mike Tice when Jack Del Rio was hired in 2015. Today, they add John Pagano to the defensive coaching staff. Pagano had a long time tenure with the San Diego Chargers (now the Los Angeles Chargers), most notably being their defensive coordinator. His defenses were very underrated. We've seen it first hand whenever the Raiders played the Chargers with Pagano as the DC. Most of those games were tightly contested. He did a solid job last season despite all the injuries. The Chargers were co-leaders in interceptions with 18 INTs. He also helped mold Joey Bosa into arguably the unanimous Defensive Rookie of the Year this season. Interesting fact that he and Jack Del Rio worked together as coaching assistants of the New Orleans Saints under renowned head coach, Mike Ditka, so there is some familiarity involved. I said in my "Season in Review" post that Ken Norton, Jr. needed a mentor to show him the ropes on how to game plan defensively and make adjustments. I thought Gus Bradley would be the ideal candidate because Norton is trying to implement Seattle's system. However, John Pagano is another solid alternative. With this hire, there's absolutely no excuse for KNJ to fail in his third year as a DC. He has two proven DCs to rely on now with Pagano on board. It's likely that Pagano will have majority input on defensive personnel and scheme. Del Rio wants to solely focus on being the head coach. That's a logical assumption. John Pagano could also be the Raiders' contingency plan at DC if KNJ were to fail again. This is a very good hire that could season up the defensive unit. There is talent on the defense, but they were not playing to their strengths because of KNJ's ineptitude. That should change with the addition of John Pagano to the coaching staff.