And though this is another new coordinator for Darnold and for the Seahawks, who are on their third OC in as many seasons under Mike Macdonald, it doesn't figure to be a huge adjustment for the offense. For starters, it will help that, after significant roster turnover last offseason on offense, that unit returns 10 of 11 starters from the team's Super Bowl LX win over the Patriots. They are also sticking with a similar scheme going from Kubiak to Fleury, who both have deep roots in the West Coast offense and wide zone scheme made popular by Mike Shanahan and Gary Kubiak, and later their sons, Kyle Shanahan and Klint Kubiak, as well as Rams coach Sean McVay, another Shanahan disciple. And for Darnold, this will be a fourth straight season in some version of that scheme, having been a backup in San Fracisco in 2023, then played for Kevin O'Connell, a former McVay assistant, in Minnesota, and for Kubiak last year.
"It's a lot of the same stuff," Darnold said. "Fleury obviously coming from San Francisco, but a couple different wrinkles here and there. So it's been good that way to be able to get some of that same verbiage but just a couple different wrinkles, like I said. So it's been really good to be able to get some stuff that he's been doing with San Francisco the last couple years and how we incorporate that into our system into what we've been building on the past year."
As for getting to know Fleury's personality, Darnold called his new offensive coordinator, "really stoic," something he sees as a great trait in a play-caller.
"He's really stoic, I think that's one thing that really stands out," Darnold said. "His standard's really high for our group, not only for us but himself as well. So that's one thing that is great to see in a coordinator, is the standard being what it is, and that if it ever drops, he's going to hold us to a high standard and not let us stoop down to a certain level knowing that we can continue to rise and continue to get better, especially during this time. He's been great. Like I said, we're just continuing to know each other throughout this month and a half, two months. It's been great so far."
Another coordinator change will mean a bit of adjustment for Darnold and the offense, but it also creates a new opportunity to inject new ideas into an offense, something Darnold is looking forward to seeing play out.
"There is some good stuff," Darnold said when asked about any differences he has seen in the offense. "There is some good stuff that we got that he has seen throughout San Francisco the last two or three years that, like I said, since I left there that they continued to build on in their system that he brought over here. So it's been really good stuff. Then some of the stuff we were doing last year in incorporating that into some of the stuff that they don't necessarily do, or at least when I was in San Francisco, they hadn't done. So it's really good to just kind of bounce ideas off each other. Not only with me and Fleury, but with other players in the locker room as well, and then obviously with all the other coaches that have really good ideas that have been other places. So it's really cool to just continue to collaborate on certain ideas and concepts."