Is Mike Holmgren Right? Seattle Should Hire Offensive Coach, Legends Advises

Mike Holmgren, who led the Seattle Seahawks to their first Super Bowl appearance, has a clear vision of who the team's next coach should be.

More than a week into their search for a new coach, the Seattle Seahawks have cast a wide net for themselves.

The Seahawks have already interviewed or requested to interview eight different candidates, and that's not counting other coaches they reportedly have interest in. Replacing Pete Carroll, who led by far the most-successful stretch in franchise history over his 14 years in Seattle, was never going to be easy, but the Seahawks are doing everything they can to find a suitable successor.

The big question that the Seahawks, and any other team looking for a coach, has to answer is if they want to hire an offensive or a defensive mind. There are merits to both approaches, but for former Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, the answer to that question is clear.

“I’ve mentioned this to John [Schneider, Seahawks general manager] when I talked to him,” Holmgren said on 93.3 KJR. “I said, ‘Look, you’re going to make the right call, you’ve got to [choose] who you think is the right guy, but if you want my two cents, it’d be an offensive guy.’ Because that’s how I grew up. That’s how I came into the league.

“I said, ‘It’s an offensive guy who will hire a great defensive coordinator, okay, and off you go. Hopefully the guy he hires will be the play-caller. He won’t be standing there and have someone else call the plays. You have the new head coach call the plays.”

As he mentions, Holmgren, who coached the Seahawks from 1999 to 2008 and led the team to a Super Bowl XL appearance, is an offensive mind himself, so it makes sense why he'd want someone with a similar background.

However, there are a couple of factors that might make the Seahawks lean towards a defensive mind instead. First, Seattle's defense was not good this season, finishing 25th in points allowed and 30th in yards allowed. With the Seahawks' deficiencies on that side of the ball, they may want a coach that can fix those problems.

Secondly, there's an interesting dichotomy between the top offensive and defensive coaches in this cycle. While the offensive candidates are largely lacking in head-coaching experience, the defensive ones, such as Bill Belichick, Jim Harbaugh and Mike Vrabel, have tons of experience. Hiring a younger coach with less experience isn't necessarily good or bad, but is something to consider.

The Seahawks currently have four offensive coordinators on their interview list. That group includes Mike Kafka of the New York Giants, Ben Johnson of the Detroit Lions, Bobby Slowik of the Houston Texans and Frank Smith of the Miami Dolphins.

Ranking Seahawks Head Coaching Candidates

If the Seahawks do decide to follow Holmgren's advice and hire an offensive coach, they'd do so with the expectation that that coach could make Seattle's offense a top-10, if not top-five, unit in the league.