Seattle Seahawks new offensive coordinator Brian Fleury answers questions during a press conference at the NFL football team's headquarters, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, in Renton, Wash. (John Froschauer / Associated Press)
RENTON, Wash. - Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald could have made the easy choice to promote someone in-house to replace Klint Kubiak as the team's offensive coordinator.
But Macdonald's process implored him to go another direction and hire Brian Fleury instead.
"We had some really great, talented coaches in-house that we talked to and all those guys did a phenomenal job," Macdonald said. "… I knew about Brian, I knew he was a great coach. Then we had an opportunity to talk to him, and he did a phenomenal job. I think his vision and what he believes in offensively with a football team, was aligned with how we want it to."
Fleury, 47, joins the Seahawks after seven seasons coaching with the San Francisco 49ers, most recently as tight ends coach and running game coordinator. Fleury made sure to thank the 49ers, their owners – the York family – and head coach Kyle Shanahan for helping him become the coach he is today, which led to the chance to take this job with Seattle.
"The opportunity means a lot," Fleury said. "I mean, I think there's only 13 of these non-head coach play calling jobs on the planet. So, to be considered for one was an honor, and now to be sitting here next to Mike (Macdonald), I can't really express it any better than that."
Macdonald and Fleury shared some common connections throughout coaching circles. He talked with many of them during the process and the Seahawks were really impressed by Fleury's interview with the team last weekend.
"I feel like he has great command. He has great communication skills," Fleury said. "There's clarity in how he sees the game and what he expects. I think our players are going to really appreciate that. We talk about clarity a lot and being decisive, so I'm very confident that what we're going to be asking our players to do is going to be very clear to them."
Kubiak and Fleury spent time together with the 49ers in 2023 and share similar views on offensive football due to their backgrounds in the Shanahan system. Fleury said the goal will be to keep a lot of the system the same, while still looking for opportunities to push the offense forward.
"It looks very similar to the one that just won the Super Bowl," Fleury said. "It's more about how you play than what you’re actually doing schematically. We're going to be fast, violent, and aggressive in every way that we possibly can. Put pressure on defenses, both schematically and from a tempo standpoint, and just always have that type of mindset."
Fleury will be calling offensive plays for the first time in his career. While he's done so on defense and special teams previously, the chance to call offensive plays hasn't presented itself until now.
"I have not called offensive plays, but have always been preparing to," Fleury said. "The thing about offensive play calling to me is the preparation is done ahead of time. You're thinking through the situations and putting plays in a list format of when you get to 2nd-and-one inside the 30-yard line, what are you going to call? So, the preparation aspect of it I've already done, now it's just a matter of analyzing the information in real time and getting to the right play call on the sheet."
The lack of play-calling experience isn't a concern for Macdonald.
"All play-callers have to be first-time play-callers at some point," he said. "You could tell how Brian thinks about the game. Look, you're going to have to grow into any new role, but we have a lot of great people around here and a lot of great opportunities for him to get ready to go. I'm really confident he's going to be off and running sooner than later. I'm excited about it. It's going to be a fun process to build this thing."
Fleury said he would like to call plays from the sidelines during games because of the ability to communicate face-to-face with players on the field. However, he said he also wants to call plays from the booth during the preseason as well to feel the contrast before making a decision.
Fleury described himself as "not a very good" quarterback during his playing days in college, where he mostly served as a backup.
"I'm not very fast or agile. I was a pocket passer for sure," he said.
During his coaching career, Fleury has coached on both sides of the ball, and saw time working in analytics with the Miami Dolphins, which helped round out his resume. The work coaching linebackers in college and with the Cleveland Browns allowed him to understand the defensive structures he's now tasked with trying to beat as an offensive coordinator. And the time working in analytics in Miami gave him the chance to view game strategy in a different way.
"When you're a position coach, you get lost in the day-to-day details and minutiae of making sure those players are right," Fleury said. "You obsess over it all the time and being freed up from that really allowed me to develop my own philosophy of how I would handle certain things. So, at the time, I was a little bit frustrated because I wasn't dealing with players directly, but in hindsight, it probably was one of the most valuable three-year periods of my life, just from a development standpoint."
The decision by Macdonald to go with Fleury did mean some changes to the coaching staff. Andrew Janocko and Rick Dennison left to join Kubiak's staff in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, some roles are changing among coaches still in the building as the team works to structure their new staff for the 2026 season.
"To me, it's about how can we structure our staff and the roles and responsibilities that we can dish out throughout the course of the week to generate the best ideas for our players, and help put them in position to win games," Macdonald said.
In addition to Fleury, the Seahawks have added Daniel Stern as an offensive assistant, and Zachary Orr as a linebackers coach from the Baltimore Ravens. Macdonald worked with both coaches in Baltimore and had the chance to add them to his staff in Seattle.
"(Stern's) role is going to evolve as we go," Macdonald said. "He's going to be a really significant part of our offensive staff as well as helping me bounce some ideas off of Brian (Eayrs). He’s going to have his hand in everything, and I'm sure it’ll evolve from there, but we're really excited to have him.
"Zach and I have had a relationship for a long time. He came in the NFL the same year, so we've known each other since 2014. Just everything he's about as a coach. This was an opportunity to add to our staff."
The Source: Information in this story came from FOX 13 Seattle reporting.
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