The Seattle Seahawks officially lost another coach on Monday as the NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported that Shane Waldron will be joining the Chicago Bears as that team's new offensive coordinator. Waldron was free to go elsewhere after the Seahawks let Pete Carroll go as head coach this offseason. Waldron was unlikely to be retained by whoever the new head coach in Seattle is.
Waldron was an at-times creative offensive coordinator with the Seahawks, but he also often seemed to get pass-happy - Seattle threw the ball the fifth-most in the league this season. This was especially true on early drives of the second halves of games when Seattle needed points. Many times, Shane Waldron seemed to forget it was OK to run the ball which is a shame when a team has running backs such as Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet.
Waldron leaving might be addition by subtraction. He did seem to do a good job with quarterback Geno Smith. OCs, however, need to be a lot better well-rounded than just getting the quarterback playing decently.
The new Seahawks head coach should chase Antwaan Randle El for new OC
I do not have any current offensive coordinators on this list for two reasons. One is that the potential OC is already employed with another team and that makes him moving to a different team for the same position is extremely unlikely. The other is that many top OCs are likely being interviewed for head coaching positions and not looking to remain in the same position.
The three coaches I have on this list are worthy of being promoted from whatever they currently coach. This begins with Detroit Lions wide receiver coach Antwaan Randle El who has been a coach in Detroit for three years and would have learned even better how to scheme offensively under offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.
Of course, there is a decent chance that the Seahawks hire Johnson to be their next head coach and Johnson simply brings Randle El with him. That would make for a near seamless transition for Randle El as he would already have a great understanding of what his head coach is needing on the offensive side of the ball.
Klint Kubiak would make a great OC for the Seahawks
Kubiak's lineage in the NFL is almost peerless. He learned at the knee of his father, Gary, and has also learned under Kevin Stefanski and Kyle Shanahan. Kubiak is only 36 years old, but he has one year of experience as offensive coordinator in the NFL when he served the Minnesota Vikings in that role in 2021. Prior to that, Kubiak helped make Kirk Cousins a better quarterback in Minnesota as Kubiak was the quarterbacks coach.
Kubiak also helped Russell Wilson be a little better in 2022 after Kubiak took over play-calling duties with the Denver Broncos after head coach Nathaniel Hackett had been fired. Kubiak seemed to have the talent to stream-line the offense fairly quickly and get Wilson to better understand what he needed to do.
Kubiak would likely bring a big change to what Seattle's offense looks like compared to Shane Waldron and the offense could look a lot more like what the San Francisco 49ers do with a lot of movement and moving skill position players around from play to play where a defense has to guess, for instance, where Walker might line up or Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Under Waldron, the Seahawks offense was a little too stagnant. A system such as Kubiak might run would probably use the talent Seattle currently has much better. The only fear is that Kubiak would do too good of a job and be hired as a head coach elsewhere in a year or two.
Jerrod Johnson would be an excellent OC in Seattle
Johnson making a leap to offensive coordinator might be too quick of one as he has only been coaching in the NFL since 2020 and onyl two seasons when he was not an offensive quality control coach. But he quickly moved to quarterbacks coach for the Houston Texans this year and he did an amazing job getting rookie C.J. Stroud to not only be efficient, but near elite in his first season.
Besides, Johnson played for a number of years in the NFL so it's not like he is completely new to the league. He appears to have been able to transition the knowledge he picked up by playing and transposing that into teaching others what is needed. Whatever magic he worked with Stroud this year is going to get Johnson promoted to OC sooner rather than later.
That sooner should be with the Seahawks. The Texans offense was designed to acclimate players quickly and then expand as the season wore on. This means Johnson knows how to help start with an easy but still productive scheme and then add to it as games go by but getting player buy-in while expanding the offense.
Plus, if Seattle decides to move on from Geno Smith either this year or next, Johnson would already have experience getting a rookie quarterback up to speed quickly. Maybe Stroud is a great enough player to be able to adapt quickly, but he only was able to be as successful as he was this season with the help of Johnson.