Jim Mora was officially announced as the successor to head coach Mike Holmgren in the Seahawks staff.


Seattle CEO Tod Leiweke and general manager Tim Ruskell officially introduced the 46-year-old Mora as their head coach for the 2009 season at a press conference. The plan in Seattle also includes a five-year contract for Mora, which will become a head coaching contract for the 2009 season. Strangely, neither Holmgren nor Mora were in attendance.


“It’s a great thing for an organization to be able to do and say that, and have the head coach endorse that,” said Ruskell. “It knocks out a great deal of uncertainty. It’s a good thing. It’s a unique thing to be able to do this in the world of sports.”

Mora has 24 years of NFL coaching experience. Jim Mora took the Falcons to the NFC championship in 2004, his first season in Atalanta. The Falcons fired him on New Year’s Day, 2007 and they went 26-22 under Mora.


Holmgren, a veteran of 16 seasons as an NFL head coach, announced on Jan. 22, after the Seahawks lost in the divisional playoffs at Green Bay, that 2008 would be his final season and he will fullfil the final season of his contract. Yet Holmgren acknowledged late this past season, just before the Seahawks went to the playoffs for the fifth consecutive time, that Jim Mora would be a head man again “soon.”


The Seahawks are not the first team to designate a coach-in-waiting. The Indianapolis Colts announced Jim Caldwell as the eventual replacement for Tony Dungy, whenever Dungy decides to retire.