Seahawks hiring former Titans assistant as QB coach

New Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb have their new quarterbacks coach in former Titans assistant Charles London, according to Jonathan Jones of NFL on CBS. It’s a nice get for Seattle after seeing London interview for offensive coordinator jobs in the past few offseasons.

London’s coaching experience in the NFL dates back to 2007. After three years at his alma mater, Duke, London accepted an offensive quality control coaching job with the Bears. Three years later, he would spend a year with the Titans as an offensive assistant before returning to the college ranks for two years at Penn State. London would split the next seven years between Houston and Chicago coaching running backs.

After mostly focusing on running backs up to this point in his career, London made a switch when he accepted the Falcons quarterbacks coaching job in 2021. After two years in Atlanta handling the transition from Matt Ryan to Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder, London took the same job with the Titans last year after initially interviewing for their offensive coordinator job. In Tennessee, London once again handled a quarterback transition after veteran Ryan Tannehill was benched for rookie second-round pick Will Levis following an injury.

While London’s experience in the passing game doesn’t jump off the stat sheet, he is widely respected in offensive coaching circles. Last year, the Titans weren’t the only team interested in London as a play-caller as the Commanders also requested to interview the veteran coach. The year before, the Dolphins and the Rams interviewed London for a coordinator position.

In Seattle, London will now be tasked with mentoring veteran quarterbacks Geno Smith and Drew Lock. It’s hard to envision the Seahawks moving on from Smith after seeing him rejuvenate his career in the past two seasons, but at 33 years old, Smith is becoming one of the older starters in the NFL. This is not the team’s intention, but London’s experience transitioning offenses from a veteran passer to a new starter would be handy should Seattle need to move on from Smith quickly.

So, after landing their running backs and wide receivers coaches earlier this week, the Seahawks get a new mentor for their veteran passer. With offensive line coach Scott Huff following Grubb from Washington (and Tuscaloosa) and Jake Peetz in place as pass-game coordinator, this leaves tight ends coach as the only position left to fill on Grubb’s offense.