The Seattle Seahawks formally announced on Thursday the addition of 15 assistants to head coach Mike Macdonald‘s 2024 coaching staff, following a week of several stories tying coaches to the club.
Seattle recruited seven positional coaches, including running back coach Kennedy Polamalu, quarterback coach Charles London, safeties coach Jeff Howard, and outside linebackers coach Chris Partridge, as well as hired Jake Peetz as its new pass game coordinator.
Peetz, who jumps around the NFC West between teams, was a pass game specialist for the Rams for the previous two seasons. He was LSU’s offensive coordinator in 2021 and the running back and quarterback coach for the Panthers for two seasons before moving to Los Angeles. He has coached for the Jaguars and Raiders in the NFL in addition to serving as a member of Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama for two different terms.
Peetz will collaborate closely with London, who joins Seattle after three seasons as a quarterback coach in Atlanta and Tennessee, in addition to being teamed with offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb.
The former Duke running back learned under current Boston College head coach Bill O’Brien while coaching his native position for seven seasons with Chicago and Houston.
Former Arizona State and Boise State offensive coordinator Zak Hill will return to the Pacific Northwest to take over as Seattle’s new quality control coach and offer an additional resource for Grubb and London. The former standout quarterback for Central Washington began his coaching career at Eastern Washington as the quarterbacks coach and pass game coordinator after throwing 76 touchdown passes in his collegiate career.
The sixty-year-old Polamalu comes to the Pacific Northwest with an amazing resume, joining Peetz and London.
Running backs have reached the 1,000-yard mark seven times under his coaching, with Josh Jacobs surpassing 1,600 yards and winning the NFL rushing title in Las Vegas two seasons ago. Jacobs has coached running backs for the Browns, Jaguars, Vikings, and most recently the Raiders. From 2001 to 2003, he also served as USC’s special teams coach under former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.
Former Panthers and Steelers receiving coach Frisman Jackson will assume the same position and work with DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, inheriting probably Seattle’s most talented position group. He has taught three different 1,000-yard receivers in the last four seasons, including emerging star George Pickens during the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season last year.
In 2022, the Seahawks brought in Tyson Prince, a former offensive quality control coach under Grubb at Washington, to help Jackson. He previously worked with Grubb at Fresno State and served as Sacramento State’s FCS pass game coordinator and receivers coach last season.
By appointing veteran NFL offensive line coach Brendan Nugent as an assistant, Seattle expanded the offensive line coach Scott Huff’s mentorship in the trenches. Having nearly twenty years of professional coaching experience, he most recently served as the offensive line coach for the Chargers under Brandon Staley for the last two seasons. Prior to that, he was the offensive line coach for the Saints from 2015 to 2021.
Mack Brown, a former offensive assistant for the Jets, will also join the Seahawks as their new tight end coach. He has spent the last five seasons in New York, where he has served as a defensive assistant for Adam Gase for two seasons and taught tight ends and receivers for Robert Saleh’s staff for three of those seasons. After three seasons as a graduate assistant at Missouri, he spent three seasons as an offensive coordinator at Missouri State before making the leap to the league.
Howard joins Macdonald’s staff as the safeties coach, bringing with him a lot of experience in coaching many positions.
He worked as a pass game coordinator for the Browns for three years until taking over as linebackers coach with the Chargers last season. During that time, the team finished in the top five in passing defense in 2021 and 2022. After serving as the defensive assistant for Mike Zimmer’s Seahawks during one season as Leslie Frazier’s assistant head coach, he was given his first opportunity to coach in the NFL in 2013 with the Vikings.
Partridge will take over as outside linebackers coach, a position he held at Michigan last season, working alongside inside linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti, who joined from Green Bay last month.
After serving in a variety of capacities as Michigan’s defensive coordinator for five seasons and as Ole Miss’ defensive coordinator for three, he will be making his NFL debut. He also worked as Jay Harbaugh’s assistant for a spell while at Ole Miss.
In collaboration with Aden Durde, the defensive coordinator, the Seahawks appointed Justin Hinds as their new defensive line coach. He worked as an FCS defensive coordinator at Western Carolina before taking on the role of assistant defensive line coach with the Bears for the previous two seasons.
Former Ravens linebacker Josh Bynes will join Olivadotti and Partridge as an assistant linebacker coach to complete the defensive staff.
While pass game coordinator Karl Scott, whom Nick Perry, a former Alabama safety and Falcons assistant, coached alongside in Tuscaloosa under Nick Saban, will reconnect with him. Rob Caprice, who spent three years as a graduate assistant at Tennessee, was also recruited by the team as a defensive intern.
