Tag: Kennedy Polamalu

Seahawks add 4 more assistant coaches to Mike Macdonald’s staff

On Thursday we received word of three more assistants getting hired by Seattle.

Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald is ramping up his coaching staff for the 2024 season. Since Thursday we received word of four more assistants getting hired by Seattle.

According to Mike Garafolo at NFL Network, the team is hiring Rams pass game specialist Jake Peetz as their new pass game coordinator.

Before he joined Sean McVay’s staff Peetz put in time with a ton of different college and NFL teams, including UCLA, the Jaguars, the Raiders, Alabama, the Commanders and the Panthers. Here Peetz will be working under Seattle’s new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who spent the last two seasons calling plays for Washington.

Additionally, the team announced yesterday that they have added Devin Fitzsimmons as an assistant special teams coach.

Fitzsimmons also comes with a lot of experience. This will be his 12th season coaching special teams between college and the NFL. With the Seahawks Fitzsimmons will be serving under special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh, son of Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh. He had been working as Michigan’s special teams coordinator under his dad last season when they won the national title.

Also, Jeremy Fowler at ESPN is reporting that Frisman Jackson is getting hired as the team’s new wide receivers coach.

After his playing career was over, Jackson served as wide receivers coach at a bunch of different college programs, including Temple and Baylor. He followed Matt Rhule to the Panthers, serving in the same role there for two years, followed by two years as the Steelers’ wide receiver coach.

Finally, according to Tom Pelissero at NFL Network, the Seahawks are hiring Kennedy Polamalu as their running backs coach.

Polamalu also has extensive experience coaching at both levels. Most recently he has been the running backs coach for the Vikings from 2017-2021 and then the Raiders for the last two seasons.

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Raiders to hire Kennedy Polamalu as running backs coach

Well-respected longtime running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu joining Raiders staff

The Raiders continue building their coaching staff. They are in the phase of naming position coaches now. The latest is the addition of former Vikings RB coach Kennedy Polamalu to the same position.

If his name sounds familiar it’s because he’s the uncle of Hall of Fame safety Troy Polamalu. And he gets his first name from John F Kennedy because he was born on the day Kennedy was assassinated.

Kennedy Polamalu has spent the past five seasons coaching the running backs in Minnesota where three times in that time his rushing attack was among the best in the league, either in yards, yards per carry, or touchdowns.

In his first year on the job, the Vikings were top ten in yards and touchdowns. Leading the way was former Raiders RB Latavius Murray.

The past three seasons, Dalvin Cook has carried the load, rushing for over 1000 yards each season. In 2019 the Vikings were 11th in yards per carry and sixth in touchdowns. And in 2020 they were fourth in yards and seventh in touchdowns.

Polamalu has been coaching running backs since 1994, beginning at San Diego State. By 2000, the former USC fullback was coaching for his alma mater while his nephew Troy was playing for the Trojans.

The year after Troy entered the NFL ranks, so too did Kennedy, becoming the RB coach in Cleveland in 2004. From there he would coach running backs in Jacksonville for six years before heading back to USC to become the offensive coordinator. He would later be the OC and RB coach at UCLA before returning to the NFL with the Vikings.

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