playBrady HendersonOct 15, 2026, 06:00 AM ETCloseBrady Henderson is a reporter for NFL Nation and covers the Seattle Seahawks for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2017 after covering the team for Seattle Sports 710-AM.Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsSEATTLE — Sam Darnold has a favorite adjective for first-year Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Brian Fleury: stoic.”Whether it’s a good play or bad play,” Darnold said over the summer, “his mentality never changes out there on the field.”That was true even when a wrench was thrown into Fleury’s playcalling debut — his starting quarterback going down on the fifth play of the Seahawks’ season opener with what was later determined to be a glute injury.After taking over for Darnold, backup Drew Lock led five straight scoreless possessions. With the Seahawks trailing by seven early in the fourth quarter, they faced a fourth-and-1 from the New England Patriots’ 45-yard line. Fleury put the ball in Lock’s hands, dialing up a play-action throw that resulted in a tying touchdown to wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
With Darnold watching on his phone from a nearby hospital, Lock led another field goal drive on the ensuing possession, and Seattle’s defense sealed a 13-10 win with a third interception of Patriots quarterback Drake Maye.Afterward, Lock credited Fleury for providing a calming voice amid the chaos.”I think as a quarterback, with someone in the headset, you want them [to have the same demeanor] all the time,” Lock said. “It was awesome to feel that from him tonight and see that from him and know that’s what we’re going to get moving forward.”It has become clear what kind of personality Seattle has spearheading the offense. There was never much question as to what the West Coast scheme itself would look like, as it’s largely unchanged from the one Klint Kubiak ran before leaving to become the head coach for the Las Vegas Raiders. But there is a question of whether Fleury can pick up where his predecessor left off and coordinate a championship-caliber offense in his first season in that role at any level.Heading into a Thursday night matchup with the Denver Broncos (3-2) at Empower Field at Mile High (8:15 p.m.
ET, Prime Video), Fleury’s offense ranks eighth in scoring at 26.8 points per game. But it’s also 25th in expected points added and 26th in ESPN’s efficiency metric, indicative of flaws that Seattle’s defense and special teams have helped cover.Those flaws? Too many turnovers and an insufficient run game. Darnold has not taken care of the ball, throwing five interceptions in three games since returning in Week 3.
And neither has Seattle’s backfield, which also hasn’t generated much production on the ground with its top two options — rookie first-round pick Jadarian Price (chest) and Zach Charbonnet (knee) — currently sidelined by injuries.Can a rookie coordinator fix those issues before the Seahawks (3-2) lose any more ground to the San Francisco 49ers (5-0) in the NFC West standings?”His approach of trying to find solutions and working through things that arise, I think he’s done a great job of that,” coach Mike Macdonald said. “… I think he’s doing a good job.”But we’ve got to continue as an offensive staff — and Brian’s leading our offensive staff — of generating really clear plans that we can execute, and as an offense, executing at really a higher level.”Fleury’s path to SeattleFleury’s coaching career unofficially began before his playing career ended.As a senior at Seneca Valley High School in Germantown, Maryland, he quarterbacked the Screaming Eagles — who were coached by his stepfather — to a 13-0 record and a Class 4A state championship in 1997. He scored a 1420 on his SAT, walked on at Maryland and transferred to Towson after one season.”You just knew he was going to be a coach, you just knew it,” Gordy Combs, Towson’s head coach at the time, told ESPN.
“How he acted in meetings and knowing what was going on and paying attention all the time.”The idea of following in his stepfather’s footsteps was always in the back of Fleury’s mind. He began to realize that was his calling when he got a chance in the spring to compete for the starting job at Towson with two years of eligibility remaining, only for an injury to end that bid. A younger quarterback won the competition, and Fleury never got another shot.”Immediately, I was asked to go out there and coach him, stand in the huddle with him and mentor him,” Fleury said. “Really that experience is what nudged me over the edge.”Fleury accepted his role.”He had all his oars in the water,” Combs said.After entry-level roles on Maryland’s staff for two seasons, Fleury’s coaching career took an interesting turn in 2005.
He was hired as the secondary coach at Sacred Heart, where he would also serve as defensive coordinator and outside linebackers coach the next three seasons.The former quarterback wouldn’t return to the offensive side of the ball for another 10 seasons. That was after stints with Towson (special teams coordinator, defensive backs coach), the Buffalo Bills (quality control), the Cleveland Browns (assistant linebackers coach, outside linebackers coach) and Miami Dolphins (football research analyst, director of football research).Fleury would have preferred a coaching gig after Cleveland, but his role in Miami had him working alongside the Dolphins’ staff, arming them with insights he’d gather by studying the rest of the league. Without having to pour all of his time and energy into coaching a position group, he was free to absorb the data and begin developing his own philosophies.”So at the time, I was a little bit frustrated because I wasn’t dealing with players directly,” Fleury said, “but in hindsight, it probably was one of the most valuable three-year periods of my life, just from a development standpoint.”The path to offensive coordinator included one more stop: a quality control gig with the 49ers under defensive coordinator Robert Saleh. He spent one season in that role before coach Kyle Shanahan moved him to the other side of the ball.
He was a quality control coach on offense for two seasons before a promotion to tight ends coach in 2022. Though he didn’t add the title of run game coordinator until 2025, he was helping Shanahan devise run plays before that.”You talk about a person who understands all three phases,” Saleh, now the Tennessee Titans’ head coach, told ESPN. “He knows linebacker play, he knows the secondary. To get the growth he had with Kyle on the offensive side of the ball, I think that’s where you find the greatest coaches, the ones who understand both sides of the ball. …
They can watch tape and understand what guys are trying to get accomplished from a schematic standpoint.”I think it was a home run hire for Mike and his staff.”Fleury the playcallerTraining camp practices tend to bring out colorful language from Macdonald as he runs Seattle’s defense.”You’ve got to know what the f— you’re doing!” he yelled one day this summer, chiding a young defensive back after a blown assignment.Fleury, on the other hand, had such a subtle presence that you wouldn’t know he was running Seattle’s offense if he didn’t have a radio in one hand and a call sheet in the other.”I think Coach Fleury does a great job of being all about ball,” tight end AJ Barner said. “He runs his meetings the right way. He expects great things out of his players. He comes to work each day with the same kind of attitude that’s just straight business.”Fleury, 46, has plenty in common with his predecessor Kubiak, including their low-key vibe.”There’s times [that] there’s going to be fiery moments and things like that, but I thought he was so calm and collected and all that stuff,” wide receiver Cooper Kupp said, comparing his last two OCs.
“Brian is giving Klint a run for the money in terms of that same demeanor. … There’s just a clear understanding, so there’s no jittery energy, there’s no false energy.”It’s just, ‘Hey, this i
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