The Seattle Seahawks have reportedly found the successor for former offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.
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Reports surfaced Sunday that the Seahawks are expected to hire San Francisco 49ers run game coordinator/tight ends coach Brian Fleury to be their next offensive play-caller.
Former NFL quarterback Brock Huard shared his initial impression of the hire Tuesday morning during Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.
Diverse football background
Fleury is an example of a coach who has worked his way up the ranks to get to where he is now.
He was a walk-on quarterback at the University of Maryland before transferring to finish his college playing career at Towson University. After his playing days were over, he returned to Maryland as a graduate assistant for two seasons (2003-04).
Fleury spent the next eight seasons coaching Sacred Heart University and Towson serving roles on defense and special teams before landing his first NFL job as a quality control coach with the Buffalo Bills in 2013.
He coached linebackers for the Cleveland Browns for the next two seasons and joined the Miami Dolphins’ analytics department in 2016, including serving as director of football research in 2017 and 2018.
Fleury then landed with the San Francisco 49ers as a defensive quality control coach in 2019. He moved to the same role on offense for the next two seasons and became the team’s tight ends coach in 2022. He took on the role of run game coordinator this past season.
That diverse coaching background is something Huard likes. He likened Fleury’s experience rising through the ranks to the ideals that made the Seattle-based clothing store Nordstrom’s successful. In the book “
Huard thinks that translates to football as well.
“This guy’s background is everywhere and anywhere in the realm of football,” Huard said. “He was a quarterback in high school. He walked on at Maryland, finished his career at Towson. … His dad was a coach at this powerhouse high school, and then he goes and he’s been a defensive analyst, and he’s been an outside linebackers coach, and then he’s a researcher and then he’s a tight ends coach. He’s just kind of worn all the different hats that you could possibly wear.
“… He’s got as diverse a bio with as much background at his age as I think I’ve seen in coaching at this stage of his still very young career.”
Potential learning curve
Unlike Kubiak, Fleury hasn’t called plays in the NFL. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Eric Branch reported Fleury assisted head coach Kyle Shanahan with play-calling during games, noting Shanahan said Fleury was among coaches who “serve as in-game sounding boards and offer suggestions.”
“Klint Kubiak obviously took a lot off (Seahawks head coach) Mike Macdonald’s plate by how well he ran the offense this past year,” co-host Mike Lefko said to Huard. “It was his. (He) called all the plays. We had confidence in what he could do. With Fleury, there’s just this absence there of being the guy calling plays.”
“There is, and I think that’s very real and I don’t think there is any substitute for experience and time on task,” Huard responded. “There is going to be a learning curve that he’s going to have to climb.”
The Seahawks had been expected to promote one of their offensive assistants to the offensive coordinator role prior to the reports about Fleury’s expected hiring. They reportedly interviewed quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko, passing game coordinator Jake Peetz, run game specialist/assistant offensive line coach Justin Outten and tight ends coach Mack Brown on Thursday and Friday. Janocko ending up being hired by Kubiak, the new Las Vegas Raiders head coach, as his offensive coordinator on Sunday.
“But just like the Seahawks do and Mike Macdonald and John Schneider do, they pivot when the pivot is right,” Huard said, “and this gentleman must have convinced them in that interview: Yeah, I may have never worn the headset totally, but I know how to play totally complementary.
“And you’re gonna hear that a lot. Totally complementary coach, complementary ball, complementary coordinator.”
Huard also thinks the Seahawks have coaches on their staff that can assist Fleury in overcoming the learning curve that comes with being a first-time play-caller.
“Outten and Peetz, let’s hope these guys stay, because you know what they’ve done? They’ve called plays at certain stages of their careers,” Huard said. “So to have that kind of institutional knowledge or that kind of experience or that kind of background stay with him, that’ll be the next thing for me to watch. If they stay, that tells me this wasn’t just a background fit, this wasn’t just a high football horsepower fit, this is a fit because these other guys are going to want to work with him and like him, and that’s an important component of it as well.”
Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
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