How Falcons hiring Raheem Morris impacts Seahawks and explaining my Kafka pick

Podcast appearance: Seahawks Forever, talking Mike Kafka prediction, 1/25/2024

BREAKING NEWS: The Falcons are hiring Raheem Morris.

This impacts the Seahawks in the following ways: Morris was scheduled to have a second interview with Seattle on Friday, that is obviously now cancelled. (Rude!) It leaves only two open coaching positions and almost every single head coach who fans said at the beginning of this process that they wanted the Seahawks to hire.

Ben Johnson, Mike Macdonald, and Mike Vrabel don’t have head coach offers yet. Dan Quinn doesn’t. Bill Belichick doesn’t. Ejiro Evero, Bobby Slowik, Frank Smith, Todd Monken, Patrick Graham, Aaron Glenn: Available, Available, Open, Down to Clown, Ready to Party, and In It To Win It.

Two teams don’t have a head coach: The Seahawks and the Moons.

So are the Seahawks really going to hire…Mike Kafka? I’m not ruling it out yet!

In predicting the next head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, I am combining these factors above all others: What I believe is working in the league today + What I believe John Schneider wants + What we can actually prove regarding who the Seahawks have shown interest in so far + Context clues that suggest who the league is high on as opposed to coaches we only assume are popular.

That is why my prediction with all the limited information we had by Wednesday was Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka and on Thursday—after news came out that the Panthers are hiring Dave Canales and out of the running for anyone else—I appeared on the Seahawks Forever podcast with Dan Viens to explain my reasoning for an otherwise “less popular” choice than several colleagues who remain available.

Not only should you watch it, but you could even put it on repeat and leave it on in the background to boost the numbers for Dan!

The funny thing about “less popular” choices this year: They seem to be very popular.

Dave Canales, Raheem Morris, Brian Callahan, Antonio Pierce, and Jerod Mayo are all NFL head coaches in 2024, in addition to Jim Harbaugh. If the Seahawks hire Kafka over coaches who are more experienced, more well-known, had better offenses or defenses in 2023, and generally expected to be ahead of him in line well…isn’t that sort of the theme?

I have not even had a chance to really explain my reasoning for Kafka yet and head coach news is flying off the shelf, so watch the interview with Dan Viens to get a better idea of the pick, but obviously there’s a lot more information we have less than 24 hours: Two jobs have been snatched up and they weren’t be people we were expecting.

The Seahawks have already lost one of their 5 “second interview” candidates and they might not even have talked to their number one choice yet if that person is Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald. With the Moons expected to push hard for Ben Johnson, Seattle may honestly get to choose from the entire damn league and could wait until after the Super Bowl to make it official.

I feel rushed. The Seahawks probably don’t.

Mike Kafka = Mike McCarthy?

John Schneider worked in Green Bay prior to being hired in Seattle and was there to see the team hire Mike McCarthy in 2006 even though at the time it was considered a very surprising move. McCarthy had been the OC of the terrible 2005 San Francisco 49ers, which meant that he was closely involved in the decision to draft Alex Smith over Aaron Rodgers. The Niners had one of the worst offenses in the league (McCarthy’s previous OC stint with the Saints didn’t stand out much) but McCarthy put Brett Favre back on track and then helped mold Rodgers into an MVP.

Prior to New Orleans, McCarthy was a QBs coach who spent six years with the Chiefs and one with the Packers.

Kafka, coincidentally, spent five years as the QBs coach in Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes credits him as the mentor, coach, and friend he desperately needed during his initiation to the NFL. Given that Mahomes is making a case as the best postseason quarterback in history on this side of Tom Brady, that’s a credit that should hold more weight than New York’s abysmal offense this season given their abysmal level of talent.

It also means that Kafka has coached with a Super Bowl winner, Super Bowl loser, and had two runs to the AFC Championship prior to actually making Daniel Jones look competent in 2022. And like McCarthy with Rodgers, helped mold Patrick Mahomes into a two-time MVP quarterback. Also like McCarthy, Kafka would be coming off of a season in which the offense he runs is horrendous.

The 49ers ranked 30th in scoring with McCarthy and the Giants ranked 30th in scoring with Kafka. It’s a perfect match?

With so many options to choose from now, the Seahawks may see some eye candy out there that pulls them in a direction they didn’t expect. But even then—John Schneider doesn’t strike me as the type of GM who is surprised very often. Pete has often said Schneider’s super power is just how plugged in he is to what’s happening and what will happen…

Maybe it was Kafka all along. Maybe it’s someone even less popular. Maybe it’s a person we could have predicted from day one.

As frenetic as this pace feels right now, I still don’t think the Seahawks are going to tell us this week.

Don’t just read this, remember to scroll up and watch Seahawks Forever. Six times!