Former Ravens DC Zach Orr Reunites With Mike Macdonald In Seattle
A pair of former Ravens staffers landed in Seattle today, reuniting them with former defensive coordinator and current Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald. For the second time in a row, Baltimore will watch their former defensive coordinator join the Seahawks as Macdonald is hiring Zach Orr to serve as inside linebackers coach in Seattle, per Clarence Hill Jr. of All City DLLS. 
Orr’s history in Baltimore was a complicated one. An undrafted linebacker out of North Texas, Orr started as a player for the Ravens, spending his first two years as a core special teamer before stepping in as a starter in Year 3, leading the team with 133 total tackles, and earning second-team All-Pro honors alongside fellow starter C.J. Mosley. His All-Pro season ended with an injury that led to a congenital neck/spine condition diagnosis that would force him to retire from playing.
Orr immediately turned to coaching after coming to terms with the end of his playing career. In 2017, the Ravens hired him as a defensive analyst 12 days after he settled into retirement. Orr left in 2021 for an outside linebackers coaching position under Urban Meyer in Jacksonville, and when that didn’t work out, he returned to Baltimore as an inside linebackers coach for two years before succeeding Macdonald as defensive coordinator.
Orr’s defenses in Baltimore were streaky. In his first year as a coordinator, the Ravens defense ranked 25th in points allowed, 27th in yards allowed, and dead last in passing yards allowed through 10 weeks of play. Taking another look at his personnel, Orr made some adjustments and, with some key contributors stepping up, Baltimore fielded the NFL’s best defense across all three of those categories for the last six weeks of the season. The improvement was enough to see them finish the year ranked as the ninth-best scoring defense and the 10th-best total defense.
Similar struggles plagued the Ravens defense in 2025, but unlike in Orr’s first year, there was no major turnaround. While the team found some footing partway into the year, that footing was inconsistent as they finished the season ranked 18th in points allowed and 24th in yards allowed. The 30th-ranked pass defense was an especially offensive black eye for a secondary that rostered All-Pros in Kyle Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey alongside recent first-round picks Nate Wiggins and Malaki Starks.
After the Ravens fired former head coach John Harbaugh, Orr interviewed for defensive coordinator jobs with the Chargers and Cowboys. Though they didn’t off him the DC job, the Cowboys kept in contact with Orr enough that he had an offer to fill the same inside linebackers coaching job in Dallas, per Hill. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Raiders had also requested to interview Orr for their open DC position, but Orr chose the option to reunite with Macdonald over the job in Dallas or the interview with Las Vegas. Macdonald had wanted to bring Orr as his DC when he first left for the head coaching job in Seattle, but the Ravens prevented that from occurring by promoting Orr themselves. Now, Macdonald gets his man, and Orr gets to continue developing as a coach in his system.
Joining Orr in the move to Seattle will be former Ravens director of strategy/assistant quarterbacks coach Daniel Stern. The Ravens hired someone to fill Stern’s position when it seemed he might follow Todd Monken to Cleveland, but instead, Stern will defect to the team’s former defensive coordinator, according to Schefter.
Lastly, Baltimore finalized their new coaching staff under head coach Jesse Minter yesterday. We have covered nearly every staff change in previous posts on the site, but the Ravens‘ announcement provided a few new details. First, initially thought to be hired as director of football logistics and defensive consultant, respectively, Christina DeRuyter and Rick Minter‘s titles have been reported to be chief of staff to the head coach and football analyst. The team’s announcement also broke news of the promotion of Andrew Rogan to a role as defensive quality control coach. Rogan had joined the team in 2021 as a player personnel assistant and was promoted to coaching/scouting analyst in 2023. He’ll now transfer fully over to the coaching side of the staff.
NFL Coaching Updates: Steelers, Slowik, Falcons, Ravens, Cowboys
Mike McCarthy‘s new coaching staff in Pittsburgh continues to fill out as a couple more expected hires were reported this week. Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reported that Texas Tech outside linebackers coach C.J. Ah You is expected to head to the NFL for the same job with the Steelers, while Jonathan Jones of NFL on CBS relayed the expectations that Derius Swinton II would be hired as senior special teams assistant.
A former NFL defensive end who appeared in 33 games with the Rams, Ah You turned to coaching following the end of his playing career. Apart from a brief stint in the XFL, Ah You has only coached at the collegiate level. He started as a special teams quality control coach at his alma mater, Oklahoma, before heading to a defensive line coaching job at Vanderbilt. Following his XFL gig, Ah You spent a year as a QC analyst at USC before landing in Lubbock in 2022. The Red Raiders finished the 2025 season with the sixth-most sacks in the country, and top pass rushers David Bailey and Romello Height made strong cases to be Day 1 picks.
Swinton heads to Pittsburgh after a three-year stint in Las Vegas, where he weathered the turnover of three different head coaches. Swinton has twice served single-season tenures as a special teams coordinator and was named to the interim role in Vegas last year after Tom McMahon‘s exit. He won’t be asked to fill the role of coordinator in Pittsburgh, but his experience after having worked in nine different NFL systems could be valuable to the Steelers in 2026.
Here are a few other coaching updates from around the NFL:
- Per Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, the Jets are expected to hire Ryan Slowik to the position of safeties coach. Having coached on and off in the NFL since 2005, Slowik has only held position coaching roles in five seasons. He served as outside linebackers coach of the Cardinals in 2012, held the same position in Cleveland in 2016, and was named to the same role with the Dolphins in 2023 before moving the defensive backs coach/pass game specialist for the past two seasons in Miami. As second year head coach Aaron Glenn continues to rework his coaching staff, he’ll trust his secondary to Slowik and defensive backs coach Chris Harris.
- Zenitz of CBS Sports also reported yesterday that the Ravens are hiring Patrick Kramer to a role on their offensive staff. The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec clarified that Kramer’s role will be as a quality control coach. Zrebiec also reported that Rick Minter, the father of the team’s new head coach, will also join Baltimore’s staff after serving as a defensive consultant for the Chargers. Joining both Minters in the move, per Zrebiec, will be Christina DeRuyter. She worked in Los Angeles last year as the team’s director of football logistics.
- The Falcons announced that they have hired Matt Jones to the position of assistant offensive line coach. Jones comes over from Tennessee, where he started as an assistant offensive line coach in 2023 before moving to offensive assistant for the past two years. Jones will work under new offensive line coach Bill Callahan who retained Jones on the Titans’ staff when he became the team’s head coach.
- Lastly, according to Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2, the Cowboys have hired Robert Muschamp as a defensive quality control coach. The nephew of Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, the younger Muschamp worked most recently as a defensive quality control coach with the Chargers, specifically working with outside linebackers.
Chargers Add Marc Trestman, Others To Coaching Staff
The Chargers announced on Wednesday that a number of additions have been made to Jim Harbaugh‘s staff. Many have already been reported, but others include a few notable names. 
Marc Trestman has been added as a senior offensive assistant. This marks his first NFL coaching opportunity since his run as offensive coordinator of the Ravens came to an end. Baltimore fired Trestman midway through the 2016 campaign, leading him to return to the Canadian Football League. Trestman coached the Toronto Argonauts in 2017-18, earning his second CFL Coach of the Year honor and third Grey Cup title in that span.
His return north of the border was followed by a one-year stint in the XFL as head coach of the Tampa Bay Vipers in 2020. Trestman has not coached since then, and he is far removed from his two-year run at the helm of the Bears. Still, the 68-year-old will offer considerable experience on the offensive side of the ball as the Chargers transition to a unit led by Greg Roman.
A familiar face is also among the new staffers set to join the Chargers. Los Angeles has hired former Pro Bowl center Nick Hardwick as an assistant O-line coach, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reports. Hardwick spent his entire 11-year playing career with the (San Diego) Chargers, but this will be his first coaching position at the NFL level. He and Mike Devlin will aim to oversee improvement up front as part of the development of the team’s offense as a whole.
Chris O’Leary is also joining the Bolts as safeties coach, per the team’s announcement. O’Leary previously spent the past three years in the same role with Notre Dame, and he will join a number of staffers (including Harbaugh himself) in making the jump from the college to the pro level. This post will be O’Leary’s first in the NFL.
Other notable names on the new staff include Rick Minter, who has been brought on under the title of senior defensive analyst. He is the father of Jesse Minter, who as expected followed Harbaugh from Michigan to Los Angeles to become the team’s defensive coordinator. Dylan Roney – who has held a number of positions in the college ranks since graduating from Ferris State in 2018 – has been hired as a defensive assistant.
Those two will be joined on the defensive staff by Steve Clinkscale. The latter will take on the title of defensive backs coach. Clinkscale, 46, served under Harbaugh on Michigan’s staff beginning in 2021. He coached the Wolverines’ defensive backs during that time, while also working as co-defensive coordinator for the past two years. While a number of changes have been confirmed, continuity on special teams will be present on the 2024 staff. ST coordinator Ryan Ficken will remain in place, and the same will be the case for assistant Chris Gould. The latter (brother of veteran kicker Robbie Gould) has been in Los Angeles since 2022.
Eagles Hire 15 Assistants
5:46pm: The Eagles have made Reich’s hiring official. They’ve also named 14 other assistants to posts. Seven of those coaches are holdovers from Chip Kelly‘s staff. Here’s the list (unless otherwise specified, the names come courtesy of the Eagles’ website):
- Eugene Chung, offensive line/tight ends/running game
- Phillip Daniels, defensive quality control/assistant defensive line
- Dave Fipp, special teams
- Ken Flajole, linebackers
- Matthew Harper, assistant special teams
- Tim Hauck, defensive backs/safeties
- Greg Lewis, wide receivers (Twitter link via ESPN’s Adam Caplan)
- Justin Peelle, tight ends
- Jim Schwartz, defensive coordinator
- Duce Staley, running backs
- Jeff Stoutland, offensive line
- Press Taylor, offensive quality control/assistant quarterbacks
- Cory Undlin, defensive backs/cornerbacks
- Dino Vasso, defensive quality control/assistant secondary
On the heels of these moves, the Eagles released offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur and linebackers coaches Rick Minter and Bill McGovern from their contracts, according to Caplan (on Twitter). They let go of previous D-coordinator Billy Davis on Monday, per Caplan (Twitter link).
1:40pm: The Eagles have reached an agreement with Frank Reich to make him their new offensive coordinator, according to Jason La Canfora of CBSports.com, who reports (via Twitter) that it’s a “done deal.” Reich had been scheduled to have a formal interview with the team today, and Adam Caplan of ESPN.com had suggested “it would be an upset” if he wasn’t hired (Twitter link).
[RELATED: Eagles hire Jim Schwartz as defensive coordinator]
Reich, recently fired as the Chargers’ offensive coordinator after two seasons leading San Diego’s offense, interviewed for the same position on Adam Gase‘s Dolphins staff, but Miami ultimately chose Clyde Christensen as their new OC.
Had he become the Dolphins’ offensive coordinator, Reich wouldn’t have called the team’s plays (Gase will do that), and it looks as if he won’t handle that responsibility in Philadelphia either. New head coach Doug Pederson indicated during his introductory press conference on Tuesday that he expects to call offensive plays in 2016.
In San Diego, Reich was let go in large part due to the Chargers’ ineffective running game, but he did just fine with the team’s aerial attack — Philip Rivers led the NFL in completed passes in 2015, racking up nearly 4,800 yards passing to go along with 29 touchdowns.
Injuries have plagued the Chargers over the last couple years, and health problems on the offensive line likely contributed to the struggles of first-round running back Melvin Gordon, but Reich took the fall for the offense’s regression. In 2014, Reich’s first year as offensive coordinator, San Diego went from second in offensive DVOA to 11th. The team slipped to 15th this season, and the Chargers also went from scoring nearly 25 points per game in 2013 to just 20 by 2015.
In addition to reaching a deal with Reich, the Eagles have also reportedly agreed to hire former Browns offensive coordinator John DeFilippo as the club’s quarterbacks coach. The new additions to Pederson’s offensive coaching staff likely spell the end of Pat Shurmur‘s time in Philadelphia, despite the fact that the new head coach said on Tuesday that Shurmur would receive consideration for the OC role.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.