The Seattle Seahawks are hiring a J. Harbaugh to their coaching staff for the 2024 season. No … not Jim Harbaugh, but quite literally the closest thing to him: his son Jay Harbaugh. The first-born son of the man who brought a national championship back to Michigan will not follow his father to the Los Angeles Chargers. Instead, he will be joining the Seahawks as their new special teams coordinator.
Curveball! The Seahawks are working on hiring Michigan’s Jay Harbaugh as their special teams coordinator, per sources. So rather than join his dad Jim in LA, Jay Harbaugh will team up with ex-Wolverine staffmate Mike Macdonald in Seattle.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) February 5, 2024
The connection between the Harbaugh lineage and new Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald is clearly strong. Macdonald coached with Jay under Jim when he was Michigan’s defensive coordinator in 2021. Macdonald then returned to Jim’s brother and Jay’s uncle, John, to be the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens from 2022-2023. Macdonald had coached with the Ravens from 2014-2020 before his year at Michigan.
Are we following on all the J-named Harbaughs here?
The Seahawks may not have been able to land (or were even interested in?) Jim Harbaugh as their head coach, but perhaps they got the next best thing: a man of the Harbaugh coaching tree with connections to their football legacy.
Additionally, the youth movement continues in the Pacific Northwest. Jay Harbaugh is 34 years old, only two years younger than Macdonald, who is now the youngest head coach in the NFL.
While we don’t yet know who the offensive coordinator will be, Macdonald is wasting little time filling out his coaching staff. Harbaugh will join Leslie Frazier, who will be the assistant head coach and presumably help Macdonald on defense.
More Seahawks Wire stories: