An apparently leading candidate to be Seahawks OC won’t be. He’s staying in Detroit

One of their leading candidates is out of contention to be the Seahawks’ new offensive coordinator.

For a reason they suspected could happen all along.

Highly regarded Hank Fraley got a promotion Friday from offensive line coach to the added title and pay of run-game coordinator to stay with his Detroit Lions, NFL Network and others reported. Fraley’s decision came three days after the 47-year-old offensive line coach became the third candidate to have a second, in-person interview with the Seahawks for Seattle’s offensive-coordinator job.

The OC position has been open since Jan. 6, the day after the Seahawks’ season ended without making the playoffs for the second consecutive year. That day Coach Mike Macdonald fired former University of Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb after his only season calling the Seahawks’ offensive plays.

Macdonald and general manager John Schneider knew when they interviewed Fraley this week that the Lions wanted him back and a promotion was possible, if not likely. His linemen were vocal in the last week vowing to keep him in Detroit.

“No, you refuse to let Hank leave,” Lions four-time Pro Bowl center Frank Ragnow told reporters in Michigan Sunday. “I haven’t played in this league without Hank, and I don’t plan on doing it.

“I’ll sabotage him. I’ll leak stories, whatever it takes,” Ragnow joked.

Fraley, a former 10-year NFL center, became Detroit’s assistant offensive line coach in 2018. That was the year the Lions made Ragnow a first-round pick.

Macdonald and Schneider also knew Fraley was under consideration by the Chicago Bears to join their staff as a new offensive coordinator. This week the Bears hired as their new head coach Ben Johnson. He has spent the past five seasons with Fraley on the same Lions staff.

Fraley’s wife posted on her social-media account Friday a message to Lions fans that mentioned the Bears’ interest in her husband, but not the Seahawks’

“Did you guys really think we would leave for Chicago?!?!? Our hearts are in Detroit!!!”

Fraley’s decision leaves the Seahawks in the third week of their OC search with 37-year-old Klint Kubiak, the exiting offensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints, and 28-year-old Minnesota Vikings assistant offensive coordinator Grant Udinski as the apparent leading candidates. That’s based on the fact that Kubiak and Udinksi are the others known to have interviewed twice with the Seahawks in the last week.

That doesn’t mean Kubiak and Udinski are the only candidates Macdonald has in mind.

He’s also interviewed Byron Leftwich, Tom Brady’s former Super Bowl-winning offensive coordinator with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Thomas Brown. Brown was an offensive position coach, offensive coordinator then interim head coach for the Bears this past season.

By interviewing Leftwich and Brown, the Seahawks have complied with the Rooney Rule. That’s the NFL requirement that teams hiring new head coaches and coordinators interview at least two ethnic minority candidates for those jobs before hiring someone.

The ongoing NFL playoffs, in the conference championships Sunday, plus the spate of new head-coaching hires this week have changed the assistant-coaching landscape across the league. Former Seahawks leader Pete Carroll becoming the Las Vegas Raiders’ coach Friday and Liam Coen being hired by Jacksonville leave only two head-coaching vacancies. Those are with Dallas and New Orleans.

Carroll and Coen will now set out to build their new offensive and defensive staffs with the Raiders and Jaguars. So will Johnson with the Bears, and Mike Vrabel as new coach of the New England Patriots.

Movement on those fronts could present both competition and opportunities for Macdonald and the Seahawks to talk to more offensive coaches across the league.

As the search for a new play caller for quarterback Geno Smith moves into its fourth week, Seattle’s 37-year-old head coach is showing how methodical and wide-ranging this process already is.

Just as he promised.

“I’m sure you want to ask what we’re looking for, the new coordinator and all that,” Macdonald said 2 1/2 weeks ago. “It’s not just like, ‘Hey, I have to have A, B, and C.’ We want to have an open mind.

“We want to try to find the best fit for our football team and the guys we have on offense right now.”

Asked by The News Tribune Jan. 7 if he was willing to wait until after the Super Bowl that will be played Feb. 9 and coaches on those title-game teams had their seasons over that day he before decides on a new OC, Macdonald said: “Right now, I can’t give you a yes or no on that one.”

Seventeen days later, it appears he still can’t.