One great unknown heading into the Seattle Seahawks' Super Bowl title defense is how new offensive coordinator Brian Fleury's scheme will operate.
Since his introduction, the former San Francisco 49ers assistant has said he plans to keep as much of Klint Kubiak's scheme in place as possible. Thus far, he's accomplished that.
"Thankfully, it hasn't been too much of a transition," quarterback Sam Darnold said Wednesday, .
In hiring Fleury, who had spent the past seven seasons with the Niners in various roles, coach Mike Macdonald sought cohesion after Kubiak left for the Las Vegas Raiders' top job. Darnold spent the 2023 season with Fleury in San Francisco, where he was the tight end's coach at the time under Kyle Shanahan – Kubiak was also on the staff. The sister relationship between the Kubiak and Shanahan systems makes the transition easy.
"It's a lot of the same stuff [with] Fleury obviously coming from San Francisco, but a couple different wrinkles here and there," Darnold said. "So it's been good that way to be able to get some of that same verbiage but just a couple of different wrinkles."
Breaking in a new offensive coordinator is nothing new for Darnold. The 28-year-old hasn't started the season with the same play-caller since his final two years with the New York Jets in 2019-2020 – even then, Adam Gase relinquished the role midway through the season.
"Going all the way back ... to Carolina with McAdoo, a little bit of a transition to Shanahan's system in San Francisco, and then we did a lot of the same things in San Francisco to Minnesota," Darnold said. "Minnesota [then] coming here was back to the Shanahan kind of verbiage with Klint. And then this year it's more of the same. So it's been really good to have that kind of familiarity, not only for myself but for the other guys as well."
Bouncing around the past handful of years has given Darnold experience picking things up quickly. Fortunately, this will not be his hardest changeover. The QB even likened Fleury's personality to that of Kubiak, noting the stoic confidence of the new playcaller.
"Fleury has been great," Darnold said. "His command, his presence, the way that he installs it with the run game, pass game, his command over the entire system has been incredible. [To] be able to learn each other, kind of what he's thinking in calling it and just continuing to get a feel for each other, it's been really good so far."
Installing a similar offense and principles is a good plan following last year's success. The scheme isn't the main concern. The major question comes with Fleury never having called plays. We've seen some new OCs pick up the keys, fly out of the driveway and cruise with ease. Others instantly crash under the pressure of the gig. We won't know how Fleury will handle it until September arrives.
