> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Analysis: Seahawks Continue Chasing Edges Hiring Brian Fleury as New Offensive Coordinator - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/seattle-seahawks-chasing-edges-hiring-brian-fleury-offensive-coordinator/ - Published: 2026-02-17T07:31:39.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T06:15:56.000Z - Author: Corbin Smith - Tags: Analysis, Seahawks, Brian Fleury, Klint Kubiak Despite hinting earlier in the week that the Seattle Seahawks desired continuity as they began their search for a new offensive coordinator to replace Klint Kubiak in earnest, Mike Macdonald decided to quickly pivot in a different direction entirely. After interviewing Andrew Janocko, Justin Outten, Jake Peetz, and Mack Brown, who each served key roles on Macdonald’s staff during a historic 2025 season that culminated with a Super Bowl LX victory, Seattle opted against promoting any of those four coaches to succeed Kubiak. Instead, the organization dipped into Kyle Shanahan’s coaching tree in San Francisco once again by hiring Brian Fleury, a long-time tight ends coach for the 49ers who had been on the team’s radar dating back to last year’s coordinator search. For fans hoping the Seahawks would replace Kubiak with another veteran assistant with prior play calling experience in the NFL, Fleury’s hiring likely comes as a disappointment. Though he previously served as a defensive coordinator at FCS program Sacred Heart at the college level, he has never held a coordinator position on either side of the football in the league, and when he sends in a play call to Sam Darnold next fall, it will be the first time he has done so at any level. From that standpoint, Macdonald and the ‘Hawks look to be rolling the dice, taking a significant gamble filling a major void on the coaching staff for a team clearly in the midst of a title window with a coach who doesn’t have any prior offensive play calling experience. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why handing the play sheet to someone who hasn’t even called plays in a college game would create major questions about his qualifications. But looking beyond that fact, Seattle’s decision to hire the 47-year-old Fleury shouldn’t be viewed as a surprise at all. Even without that play calling component on his resume, there may not be a coach who has been better prepared to finally take on that elusive opportunity, and his overall body of work fits with Macdonald’s relentless quest to “chase edges.” To start, Macdonald has an affinity for coaches with previous experience coaching both offense and defense as well as special teams, believing that those experiences on multiple sides of the football create a unique perspective that benefits a play caller. On Seattle’s staff from a year ago, Brown coached tight ends after previously being a linebacker coach for the Jets and linebacker coach Chris Partridge benefited from his prior run as Michigan’s special teams coordinator among others with diverse backgrounds. As players, Kubiak and Peetz both played safety in college, giving them unique viewpoints as offensive coaches as well. Set to take over as Seattle’s newest offensive coordinator, it can be argued Fleury laps all of the aforementioned competition in terms of his immense coaching background on both sides of the ball. First jumping to the NFL with the Bills in 2013, Fleury started cutting his teeth in the league as a defensive quality control coach, following up coaching linebackers for two seasons with the Browns. After a three-year foray into football research analysis with the Dolphins, he returned to the coaching ranks with the 49ers as a defensive quality control coach on Shanahan’s staff, helping coach up an eighth-ranked defense that fueled a Super Bowl run that season. From there, after impressing Shanahan in his first year with the organization, Fleury slid into the offensive quality control role in 2020 and then became the team’s tight end coach. In three years holding that role for the 49ers, star tight end George Kittle averaged 960 yards and eight touchdowns per season, while others such as Ross Dwelley, Charlie Woerner, Eric Saubert, and Jake Tonges excelled as blockers for a consistently strong rushing attack. Taking a big step forward towards an offensive coordinator gig, Fleury received another promotion in 2025, adding run game coordinator to his title while continuing to coach tight ends. Even with a boatload of injuries that impacted the offense’s efficiency most of the season, Christian McCaffrey rebounded with over 1,200 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns with Fleury heavily involved in building San Francisco’s ground game in tandem with Shanahan and offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak. Having coached on Shanahan’s staff for seven seasons, including six as an offensive assistant, Fleury understands the intricacies of the offensive scheme as well as anyone, which had to jump out as a major positive for Macdonald as he pursued continuity beyond personnel on offense. It should also be noted that he coached alongside Klint Kubiak, who spent one season with the organization as a pass game coordinator, leaving plenty of room for carryover in how his system will operate comparatively as he builds a rapport with Darnold, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and the rest of Seattle’s standouts on offense. Fleury’s connections with Seattle’s coaching staff do not stop with Kubiak, however, which also certainly helped his case as a prime candidate. Even though they coached on different sides of the football in their one season together in San Francisco, he built a connection with offensive line coach John Benton, who held the same role with the 49ers in 2019 before departing after the season. Darnold also was a backup quarterback for the 49ers in 2023, so there’s a tie on that front as well. Now, those two and Outten will be the architects charged with keeping the run game rolling after a strong finish from Ken Walker III and company, with Fleury’s extensive experience working with tight ends in the trenches as well as previously being a defensive quality control coach will give him a unique voice to add to the equation. Once the Seahawks officially introduce Fleury in the near future, Macdonald undoubtedly will have to face the music in regard to answering for why he chose to hire a coach without any play calling experience over promoting someone such as Outten, who has two games of NFL offensive coordinator experience to his name, or Peetz, who spent a full season calling plays at LSU in 2021\. Such concerns have validity, as there have been plenty of examples of first-time coordinators without past play calling reps struggling mightily and being unprepared for handling the new task thrust upon them. At the same time, as just one recent example, Bears coach Ben Johnson didn’t have any play calling experience in the NFL before the Lions promoted him from tight end coach and pass game coordinator to offensive coordinator in 2022\. He transformed Detroit’s offense into one of the most prolific in the NFL and rapidly emerged as a coveted head coaching candidate overnight, showing that great football minds can be natural fits as coordinators even without the desired experience calling plays. Time will tell if Fleury takes that same road less traveled as a tight ends coach jumping into a coordinator role, but by joining the defending champions, he won’t have the benefit of a grace period in the way Johnson did when he first became a play caller with the Lions. There will be a tremendous amount of pressure on him to hit the ground running with most of the team’s offensive talent - including Darnold, Smith-Njigba, and tight end AJ Barner - all set to return with sights on going for back-to-back Lombardi Trophies. Under such circumstances, many coaches would wilt, and if things start out rough early on in the 2026 campaign, the seat will get hot incredibly quickly for Fleury. If there’s reason for optimism, however, Macdonald’s conviction in hiring Fleury mere hours after interviewing with him speaks volumes in the coach’s confidence that he can get the job done and that he’s more than ready to take the torch from Kubiak as the next step in his career. Add in the built-in relationships with several members of the current coaching staff coupled with his indoctrination to the ins and outs of Shanahan’s offense in close to a decade on staff and the Seahawks hope lightning will strike twice with a former 49ers assistant leading a top-five offense to stay atop the NFC West.