An ex-Seattle enemy here? Report: Seahawks interview Chip Kelly for offensive coordinator
Are you ready for the Seahawks to have a former coach of Seattle football’s two most-hated rivals calling their plays?
You may have to be.
The Seahawks reportedly were interviewing former San Francisco 49ers and University of Oregon coach Chip Kelly Tuesday night for the job of Seattle’s new offensive coordinator. That was reported by Benjamin Solak, NFL writer for The Ringer.
Kelly, 60, was viewed a decade ago as a offensive savant. His frenetic, hyper-speed, no-huddle scheme got his Oregon teams to Rose Bowls and the national championship game, then the Philadelphia Eagles to a division championship in his first season as an NFL head coach.
The News Tribune learned last month the Seahawks were interested in Kelly’s offensive schemes, even during Seattle’s search for a new head coach. (The TNT listed Kelly as a remote longshot, 90-1, among possible candidates for that job early last month).
Last week, the Seahawks hired 36-year-old Mike Macdonald as their ninth head coach.
Macdonald was seen as something of a Kelly-like innovator this past season for being the coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens’ confusing, disguised defense.
The TNT learned last week from a league source Macdonald, general manager John Schneider and the Seahawks also were considering former Washington Huskies offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb for the same job in Seattle.
They reportedly sought to interview New York Giants OC Mike Kafka for Seattle’s OC job, but the Giants refused last weekend to grant Kafka permission. The Seahawks had interviewed Kafka twice last month for their head-coaching position.
Last week, on his first full day as the Seahawks’ coach, Macdonald was asked if play-calling experience in the NFL was a prerequisite to hiring a new offensive coordinator.
“It’s not near the top of the list,” Macdonald said.
“We’re looking for the right person to come in here and build this thing. So we want somebody that’s open-minded, that has a growth mindset. That can connect with their players, and build a system that’s unique to the Seattle Seahawks that’s going to live here for a long time and who’s going to be the one spearheading it.”
When Kelly’s ultra fast-paced offenses have been at their best, they’ve run an extraordinary amount of plays. Sometimes 80-plus per game.
I n his second NFL season, Kelly’s 2014 Eagles led the league with 1,127 plays run on offense. In 2015, they were second in the NFL with 1,102 plays.
The Seahawks were last in the league this past season with just 995 plays run. Some of that wasn’t just pace, but the fact that Seattle’s offense was again in the NFL’s bottom third in third-down conversion rate (36.23%).
All of Kelly’s NFL offenses with the Eagles were in the top half of the NFL in third-down conversion rate.
Some in the league believe Kelly was ahead of his time with his go-go offense in the NFL before he got fired by the Eagles at the end of the 2015 NFL season, and by the 49ers after just one season as their head coach a year later.
Kelly recently finished his sixth year as the head coach at UCLA. He is 35-34 leading the Bruins, including 26-26 in the Pac-12 Conference. UCLA is joining USC, Washington and Oregon moving to the Big Ten this year.
His offense has evolved and features nuanced, zone-running plays on which he passes on his quick passing game.
Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet played for Kelly at UCLA. Seattle drafted Charbonnet in the second round last year. He gained his new teammates’ respect and admiration this past season when as a rookie he continually trucked defenders instead of going out of bounds — even when at the end of games, including his near the end of Seattle’s win over Washington in November, the smart play was to go out of bounds to stop the clock.
Charbonnet said he appreciates now how Kelly prepared him for the NFL and the Seahawks’ ways.
“Just the style of how important practices are, coming to the NFL,” Charbonnet said in November. “Especially coming to the Seahawks organization, practice is everything for us. Chip did a great job at that.
“That’s something I’ve been able to do and carry on.”
This is the third NFL offensive coordinator job Kelly has reportedly been a candidate for in the last month. The others were Las Vegas and Washington. The Raiders made official their hiring of former Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy Tuesday. The Commanders hired former Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury instead.
Kelly signed a contract extension with UCLA in March 2023. It runs through 2027 and is paying him $6.1 million for 2024. His salary is $6.2 million for each of the final three years of his deal.
The cost he (or, most accurately, any team that hires him away from the Bruins) would have to pay UCLA if he leaves for another job reportedly has decreased from $3 million last year to $1.5 million in 2024.
Kelly said in December he favors college football ditching the principle of amateur competition and going to a full NFL economic model, complete with players paid by teams/schools and salary caps. He’s said the Pac-12’s ruin should be a siren to change college athletics.
Kelly got the UCLA job in 2018. That was after the 49ers fired him following his only season as their coach, in 2016. He went 2-14 for an already bad San Francisco team.
He was a football analyst for ESPN television for a year before UCLA hired him prior to the 2018 season.
Would Kelly fit Macdonald’s philosophy for his Seahawks offense with quarterback Geno Smith, who has played in the Pro Bowl at the end of the last two seasons?
“The percentage of when you run the ball and how much, that’s all adjustable. To me, it’s going to mirror our football team,” Macdonald said last week. “We’re going to be a physical football team. We’re going to have answers. We’re going to try to be explosive and really build it around the players that we have.
“We’re going through the process right now of who’s going to be helping design that and ultimately calling plays. To have a specific answer for you what it’s going to look like, I can’t do that now. But that’ll come into focus here sooner than later.”
This story was originally published February 6, 2024 at 10:13 PM.
