SEATTLE – Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald has found his successor at offensive coordinator.
Putting a capper on what stands as one of Macdonald’s first significant decisions as Seattle’s head coach – the decision to replace Ryan Grubb after just one season – the Seahawks hired Klint Kubiak as their new offensive coordinator, a source confirmed to the Seattle Times Sunday afternoon.
The 37-year-old Kubiak, who spent last season as the offensive coordinator for the New Orleans, was one of six coaches known to have interviewed for the job and one of three who had second, in-person interviews.
Kubiak, who was also the offensive coordinator for the Vikings in 2021, had emerged as a favorite when he became the first to get a second and in-person interview on Jan. 17.
He also interviewed with the Cleveland Browns before they promoted Tommy Rees as OC and it was rumored he would draw interest from the Houston Texans.
Kubiak was free to interview for other jobs as New Orleans head coach Dennis Allen was fired after a 2-7 start with Darren Rizzi taking over as the interim coach. The Saints have yet to hire a permanent head coach but are thought zeroing in on Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
Kubiak’s father, Gary, a longtime NFL quarterback and coach, was the offensive coordinator with the Ravens in 2014 when Macdonald began his coaching career there as a defensive coaching intern.
Macdonald fired Grubb almost exactly three weeks ago – on Jan. 6, the day after the 2024 season – calling the decision mostly an “alignment and vision thing.”
He hopes now to find that with Kubiak, a native of Houston, who played safety at Colorado State from 2005-09 before beginning his coaching career with three seasons at Texas A&M from 2010-12, and then two with the Vikings as an offensive quality control coach in 2013-14, a year at Kansas as receivers coach in 2015, then three years with Denver as an offensive assistant from 2016-18 and then to Minnesota in 2019.
Grant Udinski, the assistant offensive coordinator and assistant quarterbacks coach for the Minnesota Vikings, and Detroit Lions offensive line coach Hank Fraley also had two interviews for the job while Thomas Brown, who ended the 2024 season as the interim coach of the Chicago Bears former NFL QB and Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and Green Bay offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich also reportedly had one interview each.
Fraley, though, became out of the picture on Friday when it was revealed he was staying in Detroit with a promotion to run game coordinator.
There could be more moves afoot with Seattle’s offensive staff as Macdonald said the new OC would be given some leeway to add coaches as he saw fit.
Kubiak will be entrusted with reviving an offense that ranked 18th in points per game (22.1) and 14th in yards per game (332) in the first year under Grubb, who was hired last February to significant fanfare following his successful two-year run at the University of Washington.
The most significant task will be improving a running attack that ranked 28th in yards per game at 95.7.
Seattle had the fifth-highest pass-to-run percentage, throwing it on 62.82% of downs in 2024.
Macdonald, who comes from a defensive background and from a Baltimore team that annually leads the NFL in run-play percentage, several times during the season talked of the team’s needs to run it more and better.
“What we’re shooting for as a football team is to just play better complementary ball in all three phases,’’ Macdonald said on the day after Grubb was fired.
But Macdonald noted several times of wanting an OC who was in better “alignment’’ than he had been with Grubb, which seemed a reference to some overall philosophical differences on how to run the offense, both on gameday and during the week.
“We want to have an open mind,’’ Macdonald said on Jan. 7 of the pending search. “We want to try to find the best fit for our football team and the guys we have on offense right now.”
And while there is an inevitable learning curve for any new OC, Macdonald said during his end-of-season news conference that expectations for what the Seahawks can do with a new OC will be high from the beginning.
“I think this is a heck of a job,’’ Macdonald said. “I mean it starts with the organization. I mean all the reasons why I felt like this is such a great place to, has been backed up tenfold. So that starts there. And then our players are really the next best. I mean, shoot, we got great players. We’ve got a great young core and shoot, I think it’s a heck of a job. I think it’s the best job out there.”