I think the bigger question is why the meddling.
Not even sure I am the standard bearer on the whole 'Pete meddling with coordinators just messes things up' but I cannot deny it sure looks like he is. Weirdly, that was supposed to be the reason sticking with Norton so long wouldn't be so bad - because Pete ultimately controls the defense.
And if Pete ultimately 'controls' (not delegates) the defense, then he is driving not just overseeing. That is literally one of the indicators of meddling. Actually meddling is less invasive.
So why?
And the answer is earlier in the thread where AubHawk gives a long list of what Pete generally does. Seemingly veering off topic but oddly on point. Because it tells us what we already know : People can Change, but Pete rarely does.
Pete isn't going to change. Or he will change grudgingly but turtle up at the first sign of adversity, back to the way he believes still works.
So Football has clearly changed. Just in the past 5 years. Certainly in the past 10.
And if Pete refuses to change, it totally makes sense that he would constantly try to inject his outdated ideas about what wins football games into his coordinators' gameplans. You win games now by passing the ball and stopping the pass. Period.
Go look at a list of the top passing offenses this year. It is basically a list of the playoff teams. That is not a coincidence.
Go look at a list of the top rushing offenses this year. There is no correlation at all to success running the ball and success making or advancing in the playoffs. The top teams are some bottom feeders, some good teams. some great teams that do everything well.
So now to root causes.
The guy making the decisions prioritizes running the ball and stopping the run. Looks at passes as higher risk so they better be higher reward.
You don't think that isn't going to impact his choice of coordinators? And even so, you don't think that he isn't going to inject his dinosaur football into the gameplan because it worked for him in the past?
Of course he is.
He would much rather run the ball and then use Wilson like LaMonica where possible. And that is what we get.
And he would much rather stop the run and try to drain the clock to limit touches by the opposing offense. Which he does as well.
Pete being Pete, believe his dinosaur football works almost assures he is going to meddle. Because few sane coordinator are going to want to play that way, at least not a capable, competent ones.