Ryan Grubb has had a steadily rising coaching career, with much of it coming close at the side of current Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer. Ready to take the next step in his career, he parted ways with DeBoer last year and earned his first offensive coordinator job for the Seahawks. After only one season in the NFL, though, Grubb will reportedly regroup and return to DeBoer’s side. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network confirmed today that Grubb has been hired as Alabama’s new offensive coordinator.
Grubb joined the Seahawks under first-year head coach Mike Macdonald. Both rookies to their new NFL positions, and with Macdonald’s coaching background being on defense, Grubb was immediately handed play-calling duties. Grubb was also handed an extremely consistent personnel group that returned all starters at the skill positions.
While production improved overall, seeing the offense rack up more yardage in both the passing- and running-game and more touchdowns overall, the team also took a major step back in ball protection. Quarterback Geno Smith jumped from nine interceptions in 2023 to 15 this year. Additionally, a team that fumbled only eight times last year doubled that total in 2024. While RB2 and WR2 from 2023, Zach Charbonnet and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, both took big steps forward in 2024, the position leaders from 2023, Kenneth Walker and D.K. Metcalf, each took steps back.
In short, Grubb’s influence on the Seahawks offense was unremarkable, and with the team’s defense taking major strides under Macdonald, they were expecting the offense to do the same. Grubb was fired from his first NFL position in early-January.
In Alabama, DeBoer had to figure out what to do without Grubb at his side as his play-caller for the first time since 2020. DeBoer opted to give his former Washington tight ends coach Nick Sheridan the job. Sheridan was DeBoer’s tight ends coach at Indiana when DeBoer was OC there in 2019 and took over the OC job for the Hoosiers for two years when DeBoer left for Fresno State before rejoining him in Seattle two years later. This year, the Crimson Tide had a 22nd-ranked scoring offense and a 42nd-ranked total offense, both far under the standard Bama fans are used to. With Grubb returning to the fold, it’s assumed that Sheridan will take on a lesser role in the offense, though he may retain a co-offensive coordinator title.
After first joining DeBoer’s offensive staff at Sioux Falls from 2007-09, rejoining him at Eastern Michigan from 2014-16, coaching with him at Fresno State from 2017-18 and again from 2020-21, and finally, rising with him at Washington, Grubb has spent about 12 years working together with DeBoer. While Grubb may take a chance at spreading his wings out from under the shadow of DeBoer again in the future, it makes sense to see him regroup in familiar territory. In the meantime, the Crimson Tide get a huge boost in adding the technician that has been executing DeBoer’s offensive philosophy to great success over several years.