This past week the Seattle Seahawks hired Ryan Grubb, the former University of Washington offensive coordinator. As soon as MacDonald was hired as head coach, connections to Grubb becoming the Hawks offensive coordinator were rumored and they came to fruition.
Since the trade of Russel Wilson, the Seahawks offense has been very inconsistent, often being unable to score three touchdowns a game consistently. Grubb averaged 36 points per game with the Huskies this past season. Under his pass-first offense, Grubb’s unit threw for 340 yards a game and rushed for 120 yards a game. Some who did not prefer the previous Seahawk OC have touted that Grubb’s offensive game plan is to use his best players and tailor the playbook to their strengths and not their weaknesses, something the former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was often accused of failing to do.
Many Seahawks fans are excited about this hire due to the scheme and creativity Grubb showed with UW’s offense this past season. Their offense had 5 different skill players finish with 420+ yards. For comparison, the Seahawks last season only had 3 players with 420+ receiving yards, albeit on a higher level than UW. Grubb will have an even more talented offense to work with this year, with an elite running back in Kenneth Walker and great receivers in DK Metcalf, Jaxson Smith Njigba and Tyler Lockett.
Onto the next Seahawk hire: Aden Durde. He will be the Seahawks’ next defensive coordinator coming from the Dallas Cowboys. Traditionally, the defensive coordinator would call the plays for the defense, but MacDonald said in his press conference he will be the one in charge of calling the defensive plays next season. For the previous three seasons, Durde served as Dan Quinn’s defensive line coach for the Dallas Cowboys.
Durde was a positional coach in Dallas, but his defensive line was arguably the strongest part of the entire Cowboys team. Durde’s defensive line last season had about 50 sacks, averaging around 3 sacks a game. Something the Seahawks have lacked is a consistent pass rush and Durde will hopefully be able to elevate their current players, potential free agents and incoming rookies. He currently doesn’t have as much talent to work with as he did with the Cowboys’ where he had Micah Parsons, Demarcus Lawrence and Odigizuwah, but there is a whole off-season to change that.
The only other NFL team he has worked for is the Atlanta Falcons, where he was the outside linebackers coach in 2020, a defensive assistant from 2018 to 2019 and a coaching intern in 2016 while head coach Brian Quinn was in charge. From 2014 to 2015, Durde interned with the Cowboys before starting his NFL coaching career.
With the addition these coordinators and both the NFL Draft and free agency ahead of them, the Seahawks should be a transformed team come the 2024 season. Whether that will be for the better waits to be seen, and it will be waiting for a while.
