The Detroit Lions of course have two assistant coaches in demand for head coaching interviews (Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn), and that demand from other teams has extended to the front office.
Another coach is entertaining an opportunity elsewhere, with NFL Network's Tom Pelissero the first to report offensive line coach Hank Fraley will interview for the Seattle Seahawks' offensive coordinator job on Friday.
Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated added a note to the news, mentioning some leg work Fraley is doing.
The Seahawks are interviewing Lions OL coach Hank Fraley tomorrow for their offensive coordinator job, per sources. Fraley has done groundwork, too, in trying to find a pass-game coordinator he'd pair with.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 9, 2025
There were some rumors a year ago suggesting Fraley could follow Johnson to a head coaching job (if he had taken one), but this will be the first offensive coordinator interview for the Lions' offensive line coach. The Seahawks fired Ryan Grubb earlier this week to create their opening.
Hank Fraley looks like perfect fit for Seahawks' offensive coordinator job
After 10 seasons as an NFL center (142 games-123 starts), most notably for the Philadelphia Eagles, Fraley entered the coaching ranks at the collegiate level in 2012.
Fraley spent three seasons (2014-2016) as the Minnesota Vikings offensive line coach, then he spent one year at UCLA as their offensive line coach before landing with the Lions as assistant offensive line coach in 2018. After two years in that job, he was promoted to offensive line coach in 2020 and Dan Campbell retained him in 2021. With that regime change, left tackle Taylor Decker strongly vouched for keeping Fraley around.
“One thing I flat out asked for was to give Hank an opportunity to interview for the (offensive line coach) job,” Decker said, in April of 2021. “Don’t just clean house, because I think he does a really great job. I think he has a really great understanding of the game. Studies the hell out of everything and all the defenses. And I think his approach with delivering information and new techniques is fantastic because he played the game for 11 years. He’s good for the room—a lot of young guys in the room—and I think he's done a really good job.”
Fraley has not only coached up one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, but he is involved with coordinating the Lions' run game. As Pelissero noted, Seattle is looking to improve in that area after finishing 28th in the league in rushing this season.
Seattle also had the fourth-fewest rushing attempts in the league (383; 22.5 per game), which seems to be the core of the issue with Grubb. By contrast, notably without a quarterback who runs a lot, the Lions had the third-most rushing attempts in the league during the regular season (534; 31.4 per game).
If the Seahawks want to be a better rushing team, and sheerly do it more often in a more balanced offense, interviewing Fraley for their offensive coordinator post is really a no-brainer. The Lions may lose a top assistant that is not one of their coordinators.