The Seattle Seahawks are about to play in their first game since defeating the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl in February. They will take on the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday in their first preseason action.
A lot has changed for the Seahawks since February, with some key players leaving in free agency. Still, one of their biggest losses was offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, who left to become the Las Vegas Raiders head coach. Under Kubiak, wide receiver Jaxson Smith-Njigba unlocked his full potential on the way to becoming the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year. Now, the Seahawks enter the season with a new offensive coordinator, Brian Fleury.
Fleury is a rookie offensive coordinator after being with the San Francisco 49ers since 2019, most recently as the tight ends coach and run game coordinator, and he has impressed in his first training camp with the Seahawks.
Brimming With Optimism
With a defense that’s just coming off of winning a Super Bowl and led by a defensive head coach, it is not easy to impress or get one over on this Seahawks defense. Still, Brian Fluery and the Seahawks offense have managed to have the defense on their heels more than a few times this training camp, and it’s created optimism within the organization.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, in his August 11 training camp report, wrote that the defense was impressed by the offense and its unpredictability. Veteran safety Julian Love praised the playcalling of Fleury.
“We think they have our script, pretty much,” joked Love, noting the timely playcalling mixed with pre-snap adjustments from savvy veterans such as wide receiver Cooper Kupp and quarterback Sam Darnold. “They know what we’re in. They were on our ass the first few days [of camp].”
Fleury had also drawn praise from head coach Mike Macdonald, who is a fan of how Fleury has emphasized fundamentals.
“One thing Fleury did early in the offseason that coach Mike Macdonald liked: He “doubled down” on the fundamentals and how Seattle played stylistically before implementing the full scheme,” Fowler wrote.
One of the most important aspects of hiring a new offensive coordinator was making Sam Darnold feel comfortable, and with Fleury, the Seahawks seem to have found just that.
Commanding Presence
When Mike Macdonald set out to find a replacement for Klint Kubiak at offensive coordinator, he initially assumed he’d hire an in-house candidate. Still, Brian Fleury had both an impressive interview and an offense plan similar to the one the Seahawks ran the previous season. So far, quarterback Sam Darnold has enjoyed the collaboration process with Fleury, as he discussed in Brady Henderson’s June 3 ESPN article.
“Fleury has been great,” Darnold said. “His command, his presence, the way that he installs it with the run game, pass game, his command over the entire system has been incredible.
“[To] be able to learn each other, kind of what he’s thinking in calling it and just continuing to get a feel for each other, it’s been really good so far.”
Darnold also feels Fleury has a similar demeanor to his former offensive coordinator, Kubiak.
“He’s really stoic,” Darnold said. “I think that’s one thing that really stands out. His standard’s really high for our group, not only for us but for himself as well. So that’s one thing that is great to see in a coordinator, is the standard being what it is, and that if it ever drops, he’s going to hold us to a high standard, and he’s not let us stoop down to a certain level knowing that we can continue to rise and continue to get better, especially during this time. So he’s been great.”
Fleury’s high standard is the mindset it will take for the Seahawks to become the first NFC team to repeat as Super Bowl Champions since the Cowboys in the 1992 and 1993 seasons.
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