Hello friends (props to Jim Nantz on another great Super Bowl call), we have officially reached the darkest time of the football calendar, the week after the Super Bowl. The Kansas City Chiefs do Seattle Seahawks fans across the globe a favor, by stunning the 49ers in overtime 25-22, to repeat as champs. Kyle Shanahan, once again, fails on the biggest stage.
After all the food, drinks, and confetti, we all go home and (unfortunately) have to head back to work knowing that pro football won't return for a long, long time. When it does return though, we may see the most fascinating season for the Seahawks in 15 years. The Seattle Seahawks are putting together a coaching staff that we could see on a Super Bowl Sunday very soon.
In case you've been living under a rock since January 31st, the Seahawks won the coaching carousel by hiring Ravens Defensive Coordinator Mike Macdonald. Macdonald, who probably should have won this year's assistant coach of the year, in two years turned the Ravens defense from bad to one of the most dominant units since the LOB era, and with a fraction of the star power Seattle had.
The Seattle Seahawks are building one of the best coach staffs in the NFL
Not only has Macdonald built the 8th best defense in football last year, and first this year, but Macdonald has also developed a reputation as a Shanahan tree killer. This season, the Ravens went 7-0 against teams that are a part of the Kyle Shanahan tree. Against the likes of Kyle, Sean McVay, Bobby Slowik, Zac Taylor, and Mike McDaniels, Macdonald’s defense gave up under 19 points per game. That's even more impressive when they only forced 1.4 turnovers a game in those contests, with the majority of those in the 5 turnover embarrassment of the 49ers on Monday Night Football.
Mac is the real deal, but he's also as raw of a head coach as this league has seen in a while. Macdonald has only really been a coach under a Harbaugh's thumb either in Baltimore with John or at Michigan with Jim. With Jim essentially getting the band back together in Los Angeles, it was imperative that GM John Schneider use his experience and relationships to build a coaching staff that would allow Macdonald to succeed. Two weeks later, I think they got a home run.
You can start winning the offseason too with FanDuel Sportsbook's $150 bonus for any $5 winning bet today! Just sign up, deposit at least $10 and bet $5 or more on any game and you'll get $150 in bonus bets if your wager wins. You need to act quickly, so sign up for FanDuel now!
Leslie Frazier- Assistant Head Coach
When Sean McVay got hired by the LA Rams, he needed to have a veteran defensive coordinator that would allow him to learn and develop, while still cooking up an explosive offense. Sean knew that too, and he was able to bring in legendary DC Wade Phillips to LA and they had immediate success. A similar setup here, with Macdonald bringing in an old mentor, Leslie Frazier.
While Frazier is not an OC who will take care of that side of the ball for Mac, he can be an invaluable piece to game management as well as management of a building and locker room. I will get to more of that in just a minute.
Leslie Frazier was a fantastic player on those legendary Bears defenses of the 80s before injuries brought him to the coaching world. An apprentice under Andy Reid in Philadelphia, Frazier has had tremendous success running defenses in Minnesota and Buffalo. While his head coaching stint in Minnesota wasn't fantastic, he can use those lessons learned to guide Macdonald in Seattle.
I will love and appreciate everything that Pete Carroll did for the Seahawks franchise, forever. That being said, the combo of Frazier and Macdonald, whose mentor in Baltimore has always been a strong game manager with timeouts and challenges, should be a massive boost after the recklessness that Pete showed with those valuable commodities. I'm not sure if Frazier is looking for a head coaching opportunity in the future, but he's the perfect “old head” addition to the Seahawks franchise.
Ryan Grubb - Offensive Coordinator
In one of the most fascinating and hilarious hires we may ever see, the Seahawks landed arguably the brightest and most successful offensive minds in college football the past two seasons. Despite some pushback from Alabama, and maybe a personal favor to his mentor Kalen DeBoer, Seattle got their offensive guru in Ryan Grubb.
The 46-year-old signal caller helped lead the Washington Huskies to success they haven't seen in nearly 35 years. In his two years as offensive coordinator, the Huskies were 7th and 13th in the country in scoring offense, averaging nearly 38 points per game. The Huskies also went 25-3 during his time on Montlake.
While I believe the majority of fans and media have praised the hiring of Grubb, it does come with some legitimate questions. Grubb has never spent a second as a coach in the NFL, in fact, he's only been coaching D1 football since 2014. There's also the question of how Grubb's “college style” offense translates to Sunday's.
There really is no answer to his experience, but we also live in an era where we've seen young coaches or coordinators come in and succeed. Grubb is an offensive line coach at heart and understands the importance of protection, time, and balance. He believes in balance and being able to run the football at season's end is paramount. He also understands the value of a hot hand and riding the passing game when needed.
Grubb has also proven to be as aggressive as anyone in the ranks. His Husky teams were at the top of the sport both seasons in throws over 20 yards, while also running play-action 30.7 percent of the time in 2023. The NFL has consistently proved that a team that can run a strong play-action will be one of the most explosive offenses in the league. That 30.7 percent clip would have been the highest PA rate in the NFL this season.
This is not the safest hire out there, but I believe unquestionably this hire has the highest potential in terms of offensive greatness. Will the addition of Grubb signal a potential QB who played at UW last year being drafted in Seattle? We'll have to wait and see.
Rest of Seahawks staff looks almost perfect
While Macdonald is expected to continue calling plays for the defense, the need for a defensive coordinator was still needed, and Schneider went out and made a fantastic hire with the addition of Aden Durde. Durde, who was the defensive line coach for Dan Quinn in Dallas, played a big role in the greatness we've seen out of DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons. While he won't call plays, Seattle will lean heavily on his defensive line expertise to help the continued development of Boye Mafe and Derick Hall.
Expected to join his father in Los Angeles after winning a national championship at Michigan, Jay Harbaugh will be taking his talents to Seattle, and reuniting with Macdonald as Seattle's new special teams coordinator. Harbaugh has spent the last five seasons as the ST coordinator at Michigan and even served as the team's interim head coach in their victory over UNLV this season.
The latest hire may be the most underrated, as Ryan Grubb is not the only former Husky to ditch Alabama at the altar. Former UW O-line coach Scott Huff will be returning to Seattle, as the team's new offensive line coach. Huff, a former Chris Petersen disciple, has been one of the hottest coaching names in the country for a few years now, and his O-line this season won the prestigious Joe Moore award for best offensive line this season.
With such a strong focus and emphasis on the trenches, we could see a very different style of Seahawks football than what we've seen the past 5-6 seasons. We also have three coaches who have been a part of the two most successful programs in the country in the past two seasons. Their experience and knowledge could be a massive advantage come draft time for the next few years, as we saw Pete Carroll find major success in his early draft years post-Southern Cal.
Last night, we saw two of the most decorated coaching staffs in the league go five brutal quarters before deciding the world champion. The Seahawks have a lot of work and a long way to go to get to their level, but the talent and potential are there.
We'll see how it plays out, but it looks like John Schneider, with his job on the line, has hit home run after home run with these hires. It's a new era in Seattle, and don't be surprised if this staff gets Seattle back to the big game quicker than most think.