Why the Seahawks are looking for a new offensive coordinator

 As the Seattle Seahawks conduct their second search for an offensive coordinator in 11 months, general manager John Schneider and coach Mike Macdonald will have at least one significant advantage that they didn't have on their first attempt.

More time, and thus more options.

Consider that this time last year, the organization was still conducting initial interviews for its head coach. The Seahawks weren't able to conduct an initial interview with Macdonald during the Baltimore Ravens' playoff bye week. They had to wait for the Ravens to lose in the AFC Championship Game to speak with him for the first time.

Macdonald was hired Jan. 31 and was the seventh of eight coaches hired during the last cycle -- which left he and Schneider scrambling to assemble a staff. By the time they tabbed Ryan Grubb as offensive coordinator in early February -- despite Macdonald's misgivings about his pass-heavy résumé, as one team source described it -- their list of viable alternatives had dwindled. In that sense, the Grubb hire was to some degree a function of timing.

But the search for his replacement was already underway when Macdonald held his end-of-season news conference on Jan. 7, two days after the Seahawks finished 10-7 and missed the playoffs.

"The silver lining of being in the situation is, and the opportunity that you're presented with is, you do have a head start on the rest of the league to a certain extent," he said. "So this is something we really have to make sure we take advantage of. This is a position we don't want to be in ever again, so hopefully make the most of it."

The Seahawks had requested interviews with at least three candidates as of Thursday afternoon -- Detroit Lions offensive line coach Hank Fraley, Chicago Bears interim head coach Thomas Brown and New Orleans Saints OC Klint Kubiak. Brown and Kubiak have called plays at the pro level while Fraley -- who had a 10-year NFL career as a center and has only coached the offensive line -- has not, though Macdonald said that isn't necessarily a prerequisite for the job.