First Seahawks hire was great: Don't rush the sequel

Hiring offensive coordinator is not fly-by-night decision: Seaside Joe 1805

The name example evades me, but I once heard a writer/director say that he declined signing on for his hit movie’s sequel because the studio didn’t care if it it was good or bad: At the first sign of original being a smash success, they just wanted the next movie in production in as soon as possible so that they didn’t miss the window to maximize profits while the iron was hot.

Me remembering what movie I’m thinking of doesn’t matter anyway because it is a tale as old as the film industry. The first ever commercial success of a movie, The Great Train Robbery in 1903, was followed by the completely forgotten The Little Train Robbery in 1905. Why else do you think director Edwin S. Porter hasn’t made a movie in years?

Failure!

The Seattle Seahawks have been widely praised for their hire of Mike Macdonald as the new head coach, consistently ranked neck-and-neck with Jim Harbaugh for being the best decision of the current cycle. Said The 33rd Team by ranking Macdonald first:

There might not be a Mike Maconald detractor anywhere in the football world. Maybe there are a few "never hire a defensive coach" types floating around, but that's neither a serious opinion nor a criticism of Macdonald specifically. 

Everyone seriously approaching the Seattle Seahawks’ hire is over the moon about Macdonald. 

And speaking of sequels, just as fans were getting disturbed by Seattle’s choice to wait for Macdonald and Ben Johnson to be available for in-person interviews (“Almost everyone else has hired a head coach, this is really going to hurt us!”), the reaction to the Seahawks being the only team without an offensive coordinator has been just as ludicrously impatient.

I was a little dumbfounded by 93.3’s wording of the situation, “Why could it be taking the Seahawks so long to hire an offensive coordinator?”

I don’t know, maybe because…whoever it is will probably be the second-most important coach on the staff?

Me (Guy who knows nothing): “I have heard of Chip Kelly, Eric Bieniemy, and Ryan Grubb, and I’ve heard of the Detroit Lions so I definitely now have enough information about their passing game coordinator…Tanner…England or something? What else do you need to know?! I’ve HEARD of their NAMES!”

Macdonald and Schneider (Guys who have to put a little bit of their job security into the hands of the next OC): “Maybe we should take our time, not a single other team in the NFL is competing with us for a hire right now.”

I was working on this for a longer article of Macdonald’s need-to-do list over the next month but if it were me in his shoes, I would imagine that sleep happens for less than four hours a night and that there’s probably a lot of tossing and turning as Seattle considers their options.

I mean, I’ve been working on this cube puzzle for the last month and sometimes it’s all I can think about for the last hour before slumber. Not even working on it, just thinking about what I must be doing wrong.

Using Eric Bieniemy as an example, it couldn’t possibly be as simple as the considerations that you and I make when mulling over the best candidate to be the next offensive coordinator. “Hey, he was the Chiefs guy and he didn’t get a head coaching job for all those years and then when he called plays for the first time in 2023 with the Washington Moons it didn’t go very well.”

What would be an exhaustive checklist for ruling out or interviewing Bieniemy as the OC?

• Watch every offensive snap of the Washington team in 2023

• Research everything ever written about him, watch press conferences by him and Andy Reid to try and determine how much influence he really had when he was with Kansas City for 10 years

• Talk to GMs and coaches that I’m friendly with who know him and find out why he hasn’t been hired (this could be something that John Schneider is already very familiar with anyway)

• Examine analytical data, formation tendencies, and then cross-reference that with the personnel you have and the type of offense you want to run

• Ummm…interview him?

I don’t even find those five bulletpoints to be exhaustive, but it seems like at least a couple of days of work and that’s only ONE candidate.

Mike Macdonald has been the head coach of the Seahawks for 10 days. He and Schneider have already hired several coaches. On Friday, it was announced that Seattle hired Aden Durde to be the defensive coordinator. That was another huge domino that had to fall during Macdonald’s first couple of sleepless weeks as head coach of the Seahawks.

Durde has spent the last three seasons working for Dan Quinn and Mike McCarthy as the defensive line coach of the Dallas Cowboys and he’s worked with Quinn dating back to 2016 with the Atlanta Falcons. He joins a still very small staff with Leslie Frazier, Jay Harbaugh, and Karl Scott. Just getting those coaches in the building took away many hours that couldn’t have been spent researching and preparing to hire an offensive coordinator.

And again, there would be no reason to rush.

Yes, the Seahawks should have an offensive coordinator by next week and prior to going to the NFL Scouting Combine on February 26 so that they know who is calling the offense and what they should be looking for, but not having an offensive coordinator for the next few days doesn’t appear to be consequential.

I mean, Kyle Shanahan wasn’t available to officially be hired as the head coach of the 49ers in 2017 until he was finished blowing a lead in the Super Bowl.

That seems to have worked out fine for San Francisco.

There has also been a lot of speculation that like Macdonald, the Seahawks are waiting for someone(s) to be eliminated from the playoffs or win the Super Bowl on Sunday. 49ers assistants Anthony Lynn, Brian Griese, and Klay Kubiak have been thrown around, as well as Chiefs passing game coordinator Joe Bleymaier and quarterbacks coach David Girardi and Niners tight ends coach Brian Fleury.

The Seahawks could still go back and hire Tanner Engstrand or maybe even keep pushing for Grubb (Chip Kelly seems to have been passed over and will leave UCLA to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State instead, yet another sign that some coaches would rather have lower-tiered jobs at schools with more power than be the one in charge at programs that could struggle to win recruiting battles), which could still require that Seattle wants to have conversations with one more coaches who are in the Super Bowl.

What Schneider and Macdonald don’t want to happen is that they rush someone to be the OC and then Brian Griese or Klay Kubiak goes on to become the next Sean McVay or Ben Johnson while their choice flops at the box office and when asked “What happened?” they go:

“Oh well we wanted to wait to speak to them but then I checked Twitter.”

Will the Seahawks hire an offensive coordinator this weekend? It seems unlikely. Will the Seahawks hire an offensive coordinator early next week? It seems likely. Does it pay to be patient when trying to create a work of art that might be even better than the original? It’s been known to happen.