League source to TNT: Seahawks considering ex-UW OC Ryan Grubb for Seattle play-caller job
John Schneider said in hiring Mike Macdonald he wanted a new Seahawks head coach who would “change the marketplace.”
That may go for Macdonald’s and Seattle’s new offensive coordinator, too.
A league source told The News Tribune soon after Macdonald’s introductory press conference with his general manager Schneider Thursday afternoon at team headquarters the Seahawks have former Washington Huskies play caller Ryan Grubb in mind to possibly return to Seattle as the Seahawks’ new offensive coordinator.
That would mean Grubb would leave the University of Alabama weeks after joining Kalen DeBoer’s staff there, without ever coaching a game for the Crimson Tide.
Grubb was the Huskies’ offensive coordinator for their Pac-12 title and college football playoff season that ended last month with a loss in the national championship game to Michigan.
Days after that final game, DeBoer left his job as UW’s head coach to replace retired Nick Saban at Alabama.
Days after that, Grubb left Washington to join DeBoer as his play caller for the Crimson Tide.
“He’s under consideration,” among other Seahawks OC candidates, the NFL source told the TNT of Grubb Thursday.
The source added the Seahawks are considering multiple coaches to become the new play caller for quarterback Geno Smith and the offense. Macdonald and Schneider began that process of hiring a new offensive coordinator Wednesday, within minutes of Macdonald signing his six-year contract to replace fired Pete Carroll as Seattle’s coach.
Alabama hasn’t officially announced Grubb’s hiring as its offensive coordinator. But he has been in Tuscaloosa and was recruiting for DeBoer and the Crimson Tide as recently as this week, the Tuscaloosa News reported.
The Seahawks choosing Grubb would continue his meteoric rise.
Hiring Macdonald was outside the box. Hiring Grubb to be the Seahawks’ play caller would be outside the box-ier.
He’s never coached in the NFL. He’s a 47-year-old former hog farmer back in his native Iowa.
He was born in Kingsley, a town of just over 1,300 people in the northwest part of Iowa. He has risen rapidly from his first coaching job making an estimated $1,700 a year as an offensive coordinator at his hometown Kingsley-Pierson High School in 2003 and ‘04 to becoming an assistant at lower-division South Dakota State in 2005. He met DeBoer while an assistant at NAIA University of Sioux Falls, where they won national championships. Grubb followed DeBoer to Eastern Michigan and, for the 2019 season, to Fresno State.
Grubb came with DeBoer from Fresno to UW in December 2021, when the Huskies hired DeBoer as head man.
With Grubb calling signature, deep-strike pass plays to make quarterback Michael Penix Jr. a Heisman Trophy runner-up, DeBoer’s two wondrous seasons turning around Washington included a 21-game winning streak. That ended in the title-game loss to Michigan Jan. 8.
Grubb was considered a candidate to replace DeBoer as UW’s coach in the days after DeBoer left for Alabama last month in the wake of Nick Saban abruptly retiring. When Washington hired ex-Arizona coach Jedd Fisch instead, Grubb joined DeBoer to become Alabama’s new offensive coordinator.
He’s only been in that job three weeks.
Now he’s under consideration to join the youngest NFL head coach back in Seattle.
The belief, and custom, around the NFL is a young, first-time head coach with a defensive background as Macdonald is will bring in an older, veteran play caller from within the league to add experience to the staff and game-planning.
Macdonald made it clear Thursday that’s not exactly how he’s thinking for his Seahawks.
He said of extensive play-calling experience in the NFL for his offensive coordinator: “It’s not near the top of the list.
“We’re looking for the right person to come in here and build this thing. So we want someone who is open-minded, who has a growth mindset, that can connect with their players and that can build a system that’s unique to the Seattle Seahawks, that’s going to live here a long time — and that he’s going to be the one spearheading it.
“We’re going through the process of who’s going to design that and, ultimately, who’s going to be calling plays,” Macdonald said.
Money wouldn’t appear to be an issue for the Seahawks if they wanted to pry Grubb from Alabama. He earned $1.45 million in the 2023 season from Washington. It’s likely he got at least that or more to join DeBoer at Alabama.
There is no salary cap for coaching salaries in the NFL. The Seahawks, owned by the late Paul Allen’s estate that’s one of the richest in the world, can play coaches whatever they want. They just gave the 36-year-old Macdonald the richest salary for a first-time head coach in NFL history.
As for when he and Schneider, who has final say on Seattle’s coaching staff, are going to hire his offensive coordinator, his first big task as Seahawks coach, Macdonald said: “That will come into focus here sooner than later.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2024 at 2:01 PM.
