As the Seahawks’ search for an offensive coordinator to replace the fired Ryan Grubb enters its third week, a third candidate is coming to town for a second interview — Detroit Lions offensive line coach Hank Fraley.
ESPN reported early Tuesday morning that Fraley was scheduled to interview in-person with the Seahawks later in the day.
Two other candidates have also had second, in-person interviews — Klint Kubiak, the offensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints in 2024, and Grant Udinski, an assistant offensive coordinator and assistant quarterbacks coach with the Minnesota Vikings.
The Seahawks held a first interview with Chicago Bears interim coach Thomas Brown and former Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich.
Kubiak and Udinski were available to interview in-person last week since their teams’ seasons were over.
The Seahawks could have competition for Kubiak as a report from The Athletic on Tuesday stated Kubiak could be a candidate for the OC job with the New York Jets if Aaron Glenn is named head coach, as is generally expected to happen.
There was also a report Tuesday from Sports Illustrated that said Udinski interviewed with the New England Patriots on Monday for their OC job. But that job was filled Tuesday afternoon when the Patriots hired Josh McDaniels, according to multiple reports.
Fraley was not available for a second, in-person interview until this week with the Lions losing to the Washington Commanders on Saturday.
Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was named the head coach of the Bears. That has led to questions of whether Fraley could be in line for a promotion with the Lions, or to go with Johnson to Chicago.
Getting the second interview indicates he is seriously in the running for the Seahawks’ job.
Fraley, 47, played 11 seasons in the NFL after entering the league as an undrafted free agent in 2000 out of Robert Morris. He started 123 games with the Eagles (2001-05), Browns (2006-09) and Rams (2010).
He started four straight NFC conference championship games for the Eagles from 2001-04 playing under head coach Andy Reid, and started every game at center for the 2004 Eagles team that advanced to the Super Bowl before losing to the Patriots, 24-21.
He held offensive-line coaching positions with the University of San Diego (2012), San Jose State (2013), Minnesota Vikings (2014-16) and UCLA in 2017, under former Seahawks coach Jim Mora, before moving to Detroit in 2018 under Matt Patricia as assistant offensive line coach.
He stayed on when Dan Campbell was hired in 2021 and has earned ample praise for helping build a Lions offensive line generally considered among the best in the NFL over the last few years.
“He’s been very important,” Campbell said of Fraley in 2022. “Hank’s got a good feel of it, having played the position, but also coached it. And he’s got a real good feel of those guys, what they do well, how to develop the talent, and he just — he’s got a real good feel of how to pull it out of them.”
Detroit center Frank Ragnow, who was drafted the year Fraley arrived in 2018 and has made four Pro Bowls, including the last three in a row, recently said: “I don’t think I could play in this league without the guy. He’s everything to me. He’s been there since Day 1. In this league, there are a lot of coaches, but there’s not many coaches like him that empower his players, and really it is an open dialogue. He really does everything he can to put us in the best positions to be confident and go out there and play well.”
The offensive line has been a sore spot in Seattle for about a decade, and was again this season with Pro Football Focus ranking it 31st in the NFL and ranking the Seahawks 28th in rushing offense.
Scott Huff is the Seahawks’ offensive-line coach, hired along with Grubb last February a few weeks after Mike Macdonald was hired as head coach.
Macdonald said the new OC would have some latitude the build the offensive staff as he sees fit.
“We want our new coordinator to feel like they have a lot of influence in their staff, so we might have some movement when that happens and we might not,’’ Macdonald said on Jan. 7. “So we will kind of go through the process and figure it out as we go.”
Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network said Kubiak was in “the driver’s seat’’ for the job when it was revealed last week he was the first candidate to get a second, in-person interview.
Then came the news that Udinski was also getting a second interview, and on Tuesday the report that Fraley is also getting another interview in-person.
Macdonald, though, said on Jan. 7 that there was no clear timeline for making a hire.
It’s thought the Seahawks wanted to cast a wide net after having a limited pool of candidates last season with the team having to get Macdonald hired as head coach and before filling out the assistant coaching staff.
