He's 28! Seahawks latest name in OC search

Grant Udinski described as football savant

My instinct that the Seahawks would target experience in their offensive coordinator search already looked bad enough with names like Klint Kubiak, Thomas Brown, and Hank Fraley heading the known contacts so far, but now Seattle is looking at a coach who would have been in the same draft class as DK Metcalf if he had been an NFL prospect.

Grant Udinski has never been a coordinator before and only a couple of years ago he had the Dwight Schrute-like title “assistant to the head coach”, but the Seahawks want the Vikings to give them permission to interview the 28-year-old for their open OC position. But despite his inexperience, Udinski has been talked about by Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell as a coach he’ll probably be working for someday and he’s the same age that Sean McVay was when he became an OC for the first time in 2014.

Udinski was playing defensive end at Towson as recently as 2018 and previously played tight end at Davidson, so he has experience on both sides of the ball. After graduating as an academic All-American, Udinski became a grad assistant at Baylor, then followed head coach Matt Rhule to the Carolina Panthers in 2020. From there, Udinski was hired by O’Connell in 2022 and he currently holds the titles of assistant offensive coordinator and assistant quarterbacks coach.

He’s now mostly described as J.J. McCarthy’s go-to coach for questions and presumably he’s getting some credit right now for Sam Darnold’s Pro Bowl season in Minnesota. I don’t want to do a biography for Udinski or any other OC candidate because I find that to be repetive compared to what you’ll find on any other Seahawks site, so read this article about Udinski instead.

The reason I highlight this particular OC candidate is as obvious as the headline. He’s 28.

Cardinals defensive coordinator Nick Rallis has been the NFL’s youngest coordinator of recent years, a job he got when he was 29. Whether or not Udinski would be an upgrade to Ryan Grubb or the best possible hire isn’t something that anyone knows yet, but we know he’s the complete opposite of Brian Schottenheimer or Doug Pederson.

By all accounts that we know of (ESPN’s Brady Henderson tweeted today that the Seahawks have talked to candidates who aren’t publicly revealed yet), Mike Macdonald and John Schneider are NOT seeking someone who can be the head coach of the offense. They’re looking for innovative play callers who have the potential to take the NFL by storm like Detroit’s Ben Johnson, not a coordinator who simply strives to be above-average.

That seems promising.

Without speculating what the Seahawks would do at quarterback if they hired someone like Udinski — because they could still hire someone “boring” — he’s been in a system that has been forced to go through a number of quarterback changes in a short period of time:

• 2022: Kirk Cousins

• 2023: Cousins, Nick Mullens, Josh Dobbs, Jaren Hall

• 2024: Sam Darnold, J.J. McCarthy (Offseason)

Udinski has been each quarteback’s go-to coach for help so whether that means getting more out of Geno Smith (something like 7 years older than him) or developing Sam Howell or drafting a player or all three, Seattle’s known targets have one thing in common:

Very little experience as offensive coordinators at any level. But hey, it’s the 90s.

Seaside Joe 2146