The Seattle Seahawks fired offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb after one season on the job. The issue was not that Seattle was terrible from Week 1. The problem was Grubb's unit got worse (and, at times, much worse, as in the Week 17 Chicago Bears game) as the season grew old, and Grubb did not know how to fix the unit. Grubb needed to go and away he went.

Seattle has reportedly requested interviews with several candidates, including New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, Detroit Lions offensive line coach Hank Fraley, and Chicago Bears interim coach Thomas Brown. Kubiak would be available as the Saints will be making a head coaching change. The move would be a lateral one, but Kubiak is not guaranteed to be back with New Orleans.

Yet to surface as a potential OC candidate is former Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Pederson. He was fired last week after his team went 4-13. The Jaguars have a young quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, but he has failed to develop under Pederson.

The Seattle Seahawks next offensive coordinator should not be Doug Pederson

The coach made his bones when he was with the Philadelphia Eagles when his team won the Super Bowl for the 2017 season. Other than that, Pederson has not had a team in eight head coaching seasons win more than nine games. Four times his teams, split between the Eagles and Jaguars, have made the playoffs.

Still, Pederson is not in line to be the Seahawks head coach, of course, as the team has Mike Macdonald. There is a likelihood that the former Jaguars coach might need to step back and take an offensive coordinator job before seeing if someone will hire him as a head coach again. Except for 2017, his teams have been no better than mediocre.

The issue with Seattle potentially entertaining the idea of hiring Pederson is two fold.

One is that, statistically speaking, he does not seem to fit what Seattle needs. Grubb threw the ball too much. While Pederson has not been the OC for his teams, the offense would have still followed whatever philosophy the head coach had.

In 2022, the head coach's first year with Jacksonville, the Jaguars threw the ball the 12th most based on percentage. In 2023, that ranking moved to ninth. This season, the ranking went down to 13th. Overall, though, in Pederson's three seasons with Jacksonville, his teams ranked in the top third of the NFL in how much they threw the ball.

Seattle wants to (and needs to) run the ball more. The offense needs far more balance which should help relieve some of the pressure on the offensive line to try to constantly protect the quarterback. The Seahawks also tend to be more successful with more offensive balance as the team went 5-0 when running back Zach Charbonnet ran the ball at least 14 times this season.

The other issue, and a common complaint among 12s, is that Seattle turns over OCs too much and that hurts offensive consistency. Whoever the next OC is will be the Seahawks' fourth coordinator since 2018. If Pederson is hired as Seattle's new OC, and he does well, then he might be hired as a head coach again sooner rather than later. That would mean another change of offensive coordinator.

Sure, a quick move from OC to head coach could happen with anyone, but Pederson has more experience as a head coach than most other coaches would so teams might want to go in his direction than an OC who has never been a head coach. The Seahawks do need a new offensive coordinator, but that hire should not be Doug Pederson.