NFC West Coach Comparison

Who are the HC, OC, DC, and GMs in the NFC West? Seaside Joe 1814

The Seattle Seahawks have yet to complete their 2024 coaching staff, the first for Mike Macdonald and the first time that they will report directly to John Schneider, a GM who now has far more control over who they are and which players they will be coaching. But with Seattle’s coordinators and quarterbacks coach in place, I wanted to compile a primer and an overview of the coaching staffs in the NFC West for 2024 because there have been a lot of changes and more to come.

Vacant positions include tight ends, defensive line, and outside linebackers coaches, with several more assistants needed to complete the staff to support them and other positions. For now, here’s a brief overview of where some of the most important coaches in the division stand.

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Head Coach

Rams - Sean McVay, year 8 (70-45)

49ers - Kyle Shanahan, year 8 (64-51)

Cardinals - Jonathan Gannon, year 2 (4-13)

Seahawks - Mike Macdonald, year 1

McVay is the best coach in the division until proven otherwise, in my opinion because he is elite at fitting the team strategy and scheme to the players he has and not the players he wants. When he wanted a better passing offense, he didn’t try to change Jared Goff, he changed out Goff for Matthew Stafford. When the Rams couldn’t afford to make the roster better last season and had the most rookies in the NFL, he adjusted again and L.A. was the second-most shocking team in the playoffs after the Houston Texans.

The Rams proved they could be an elite running back team with Todd Gurley and when Gurley’s career ended prematurely, he adjusted the offense to fit the receivers he had. When the team suffered injuries late in 2019, McVay funneled an explosive offense through tight end Tyler Higbee and he had 522 yards in the final five games of that season. When Odell Beckham Jr tore his ACL in the Super Bowl, McVay turned to unknown tight end Brycen Hopkins for help.

I underestimated McVay’s ability to turn water into wine last season and it showed immediately with L.A.’s 30-13 blowout of the Seahawks in Week 1. McVay has flirted with retirement several times already and it could only be the allure of an easier job in television to avoid burnout that gets him out of the NFC West.

Shanahan has closed the gap between him and McVay over the past five seasons, coaching the 49ers to a 54-29 record and two Super Bowl appearances since 2019, but not caught up. It’s hard to win playoff games and the Niners have won exactly two of those in four of the last five years, so while the word “overrated” is thrown around a lot lately, he’s certainly got a better resume than the majority of NFL head coaches. Still, the bar is set high in San Francisco and it’ll be interesting to see if the 49ers can adjust next season because Shanahan hasn’t been as good at that as McVay.

It’s too soon to pass judgment on Gannon. The Cardinals went 1-7 with Josh Dobbs (who arrived days before Week 1) and 0-1 with Clayton Tune (who didn’t appear to flash any NFL skills), personnel needs that certainly don’t fall on Gannon in his first season. As I wrote going into the season finale, the Cardinals actually posted a better record than the Seahawks between Games 10-16 and only Seattle’s 21-20 win tied them both for going 3-6 in the second half of the year.

Macdonald has his work cut out for him going against two coaches who have combined to reach four of the last six Super Bowls and the semi-unpredictable Cardinals.

Offensive Coordinator

Rams - Mike LaFleur, year 2 (PC: McVay)

49ers - Shanahan

Cardinals - Drew Petzing, year 2

Seahawks - Ryan Grubb, year 1

Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan call offensive plays, but L.A. has always employed an offensive coordinator. LaFleur, a former Shanahan assistant who spent two years as OC on the Jets under former Pete Carroll disciple Robert Saleh prior to being fired in 2023, seemed to have a positive influence on Matthew Stafford’s offense last season. He was certainly an upgrade from Liam Coen, who was fired but now back in the NFL as the Bucs OC in an attempt to reunite him with former Rams QB Baker Mayfield.

Petzing was an offensive assistant on the Vikings under Mike Zimmer, then followed Kevin Stefanski to the Browns when Cleveland hired him in 2020. Petzing coached tight ends for two years and quarterbacks for one, then Gannon, a colleague of his in Minnesota under Zimmer, hired him as OC last year. When Kyler Murray returned, Arizona’s offense was at least “OK”, but what stood out was the Cardinals being one of the top rushing teams in the NFL throughout the year: They finished fourth in rushing yards and second in yards per carry.

By comparison, the Cardinals rushed for 2,365 yards, 17 TD, 5.0 YPC and the Seahawks rushed for 1,580 yards, 11 TD, 4.1 YPC. Which team drafted RBs in back-to-back second rounds?

Grubb’s job will be an all encompassing effort to improve the pass and run game of the Seahawks and he will be assisted by passing game coordinator Jake Peetz, formerly of McVay’s staff. The 49ers have a run game coordinator (Chris Foerster) but need to replace passing game coordinator Klint Kubiak, who left for the Saints. They do have his brother Klay Kubiak on staff.

The Rams lost Peetz and quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator Zac Robinson to a promotion by the Falcons under former L.A. defensive coordinator Raheem Morris. The Cardinals have a passing game coordinator by the name of Drew Terrell.

I’m not going to pretend to know how all of these titles and roles are different, it varies from team-to-team, but I would assume that Schneider isn’t done getting Grubb some help with weekly game prep and in-game decisions.

Defensive Coordinator

Rams - Chris Shula, year 1

49ers - TBD

Cardinals - Nick Rallis, year 2

Seahawks - Aden Durde, year 1 (PC: Macdonald)

Since firing Steve Wilks, the 49ers haven’t named a replacement defensive coordinator yet. I won’t guess as to whether that person will be experienced and known or more of a leap of faith as we’ve seen in the rest of the division. I do think that the Seahawks could have the greatest advantage here by hiring Macdonald, arguably the best defensive coordinator in the NFL in 2023.

Though Macdonald hired Durde away from the Cowboys after spending the last three years under Dan Quinn as defenisve line coach, the head coach said he will be calling the plays to at least start 2024. I wouldn’t expect any change there this year. Durde has been following Quinn since 2016 with the Falcons and is a hire to be groomed into the role.

Chris Shula, grandson of the Shula, is promoted to replace Morris and has never had the job title before. McVay relies heavily on his defensive coordinator to run that side of the ball and in the past he’s hired experienced coaches like Morris and Wade Phillips. There was the one other time he hired a first-time defensive coordinator, Brandon Staley in 2020, and that worked out pretty well.

Macdonald is the youngest head coach in the NFL at 36, but Nick Rallis is the youngest coordinator in the NFL at 30. That means Gannon hired him when he was 29 and he didn’t even graduate from college until a few months after McVay and Shanahan were hired as head coaches in 2017. Still, Rallis reportedly had several other teams try to hire him as a DC when the Cardinals convinced him to take the job with them. In his first season, the Cardinals had one of the worst defenses in the league but same as the quarterback position, Arizona has lacked talent there.

The 2024 season will go a long way towards determining if Rallis is the next McVay or the next Ben Wyatt, the 18-year-old mayor in Parks and Rec.

Special Teams Coordinator

Rams - Chase Blackburn, year 2

49ers - Brian Schneider, year 3

Cardinals - Jeff Rodgers, year 7

Seahawks - Jay Harbaugh, year 1

I didn’t even realize that former Seahawks special teams coordinator Brian Schneider is now with the 49ers.

There have been a lot of positive things said about new Seahawks special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh and it’s a boost that Seattle could use with the amount they’ve been spending on Michael Dickson, Jason Myers, and Nick Bellore. I don’t know if Myers and Bellore will stick on the team. In any case, now is a good time to get better value out of the third phase.

QB coach

Rams - TBD

49ers - Brian Griese, year 3

Cardinals - Israel Woolfork, year 2

Seahawks - Charles London, year 1

L.A. still needs to hire a QBs coach after losing Zac Robinson and that’s been a very interesting role under McVay. Including Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, who skipped over being an OC and went right to the top job in Cincinnati. The other Zac could soon be a head coach too.

The Seahawks are hiring Charles London to replace Greg Olson. He was a running backs coach for most of his career, then Arthur Smith hired him as Atlanta’s QB coach in 2021 with Matt Ryan. London spent 2023 with the Titans, working with Ryan Tannehill and Will Levis and became available after Tennessee fired Mike Vrabel.

GM

Rams - Les Snead, year 13

49ers - John Lynch, year 8

Cardinals - Monti Ossenfort, year 2

Seahawks - John Schneider, year 15

The most powerful person with the Seahawks besides Jody Allen is now John Schneider. He had his title upgraded when Pete Carroll was fired and will now build the entire team in his vision. That could be somewhat of an advantage because both Snead and Lynch have to give over some power to their respective head coaches. It has worked out for those teams recently, but will there be some disagreement on the best plans moving forward after falling short of the Super Bowl win this year?

Let’s not forget that disagreement led to the 49ers trading three first round picks to move up for Trey Lance, as reportedly not all sides were on board with the trade or the prospect they selected.

Ossenfort comes from the Patriots tree and he just had his first draft last year, getting a good haul to trade down with the Texans and then moving up for offensive lineman Paris Johnson. The Cardinals have the fourth overall pick, the highest in the division of course and a big decision to make on whether they select a receiver like Marvin Harrison, Jr. or make a play for a quarterback who could replace Murray. Arizona might also just trade down again.

I think Schneider is the best GM in the division, but we won’t know for sure until we see what the Seahawks should look like in his mind.

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