Seahawks Turning To Ravens Defensive Coordinator Mike Macdonald As New Coach

RENTON, Wash. (AP) — The Seattle Seahawks are hiring Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald as their new head coach, a person informed of the decision told The Associated Press.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the Seahawks haven’t announced the hiring.

Macdonald, 36, will become the youngest head coach in the league and half the age of the man he’s replacing — Pete Carroll who was let go after 14 seasons in charge in Seattle.

Macdonald spent the past two years running Baltimore’s defense, including this past season when the Ravens finished with the NFL’s best regular-season record and reached the AFC championship game before losing to Kansas City.

This will be the first head coaching position at any level for Macdonald. But he’s been surrounded by successful coaches as he moved up the ranks, starting with an extended run on the staff of John Harbaugh in Baltimore before spending a season on now-Chargers’ coach Jim Harbaugh’s staff in college at Michigan.

Seattle made it clear that Macdonald was one of its top candidates when it didn’t move forward on a hire prior to the conference championship games. Dan Quinn seemed a clear front-runner because of his past connections to Seattle, but the longer the Seahawks went without moving ahead with Quinn, the more it became obvious there were other options being considered.

Macdonald and Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson were the last two interviewed by the Seahawks before the final decision was made.