Could Seahawks DC Aden Durde become NFL's first British-born head coach

Tim Booth, The Seattle Times on Sep 3, 2026

Published in Football

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RENTON, Wash. — Interviewing for another job is stressful even if you’re perfectly happy in your current role. The preparation. The questions. The waiting afterward to hear about the next steps or the final decision.

It can also be enlightening. The challenge of trying to self-scout your personal strengths and weaknesses and determine how to present the best version of yourself to others.

For Aden Durde, last January prompted a version of that discovery. In the middle of coordinating the defense that eventually helped the Seahawks to their second Super Bowl title, Durde found himself a person of interest on the NFL coaching carousel.

He did the self-scout. He reflected. He prepared. A relative unknown just a few years ago found himself receiving attention he never could have expected when he was trying to break into coaching in the first place.

“I think what you learn is you’re very grateful for the people you get to be around in this game,” Durde said.

Clearly, Durde didn’t land a job. He interviewed in Cleveland. He interviewed in Atlanta. Both went in different directions.

And, for now, that’s fine by Durde. He’s in no rush to leave Seattle. Now in his third season, the British-born defensive coordinator is perfectly content trying to run it back with almost the same cast of characters that led the NFL in scoring defense a season ago.

That was part of the discovery for Durde through those interviews last January. It’s great to be wanted and pursued by others. It’s also good to be somewhere appreciated and acknowledged for what you bring to the collective and the people you get to work around.

“I didn’t kill the interview. I just felt like I’ve been around people who were like-minded. I saw how they established their values and their principles within a team and it made me feel confident,” Durde said.

Durde said what stood out going through the interviews was how much he gleaned from the likes of Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald, along with Dan Quinn and Mike McCarthy, the other two head coaches he’s worked for in his NFL tenure. He watched the values they instilled in their teams and how it resonated. How it influenced and bettered their players. Getting ready for those interviews reinforced how much what those three emphasized fell in line with his own personal beliefs around team building.

“It’s a high-intense business that I understand that the stakes are extremely high. But I’ve learned that the people you’re around and you work with normally kind of fall hand in hand with how you do it,” Durde said. “Just made me grateful to be around; like working with Mike, I love coming to work every day. He’s a colleague. He’s my boss. He’s my friend. I’m a lucky guy.”

Macdonald hasn’t been asked much about Durde during training camp this year. But in the aftermath of the Super Bowl victory, he raved about the partnership in building the Seahawks into what they are on the defensive side.

While the team is on their third offensive coordinator in three years, Durde has been alongside Macdonald since the first day here.

“He’s a beast, man. He’s awesome, so much fun to work with and he’s right there alongside building this whole thing. So it’s been a special journey,” Macdonald said the day after the Super Bowl.

If the Seahawks are as good as most expected and their defense is again among the elite in the league, there will be more overtures this offseason about Durde. More requests. More interviews. For a league that’s made an obvious push into Europe and specifically England over the last 20 years, Durde would seem the most likely candidate to become the first British-born head coach in modern NFL history.

Does that matter? Is that important? Maybe someday when Durde takes a more rounded look at his career, where it went and what it became. For now, what’s important is arriving at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center every day and getting to work with the players and coaches that helped elevate his name to place where that milestone is a possibility.

“I don’t know. I’ll be honest with you, I think this is meaningful to me. Getting to come to work and work with (Devon Witherspoon), work with Byron (Murphy II), work with Leo (Williams), work with Mike, work with Justin Hinds,” Durde said. “I think about things I could have never thought of, doing the things I’ve done that I’ve gotten to do. If something changes one day from that aspect, I’ll kind of take that and look at that once I get there.”