New sheriff on the town: How Mike Macdonald has shaken up the Seahawks post-Pete Carroll

RENTON, Wash. — When Mike Macdonald was hired by the Seattle Seahawks this previous offseason, he introduced the Baltimore Ravens‘ notoriously tough conditioning take a look at with him.

Each NFL participant should move one initially of coaching camp to be able to apply, and the variations range by group. This one requires them to finish six 150-yard shuttles, with a time restrict on every leg that differs relying on place teams. Not ending any of the six legs within the designated time means failing the take a look at and having to begin it over.

“By no means need to do it once more,” Seahawks extensive receiver Laviska Shenault Jr. mentioned. “It is lethal.”

It might need been predictable that a couple of younger gamers would fail such a troublesome take a look at, requiring them to begin camp on the non-football harm checklist till they may move. However to the Seahawks’ new head coach, it wasn’t acceptable.

“Macdonald was pissed,” a supply near a participant mentioned.

Macdonald chewed out the gamers individually, in response to a group supply and a supply near a participant, after which introduced up the problem in entrance of the remainder of the group to be able to drive the purpose residence: You owe it to everybody else to indicate up in form.

He instructed at the very least one of many gamers that he’d have been lower on the spot if not for the assured cash in his contract, one other supply near one among them mentioned.

If it wasn’t already clear to the Seahawks that Macdonald has a distinct management fashion than his predecessor, Pete Carroll, then that second left little question.

The Seahawks’ choice to maneuver on from Carroll in January modified the group’s energy construction, with longtime basic supervisor John Schneider now holding remaining say over personnel choices in addition to oversight of the teaching workers. When Schneider and proprietor Jody Allen employed the previous Ravens defensive coordinator, it additionally meant a change in how the Seahawks will probably be coached, and Macdonald’s new-sheriff-in-town second was an early indication.

Whereas Carroll took a gentler strategy when it got here to holding his gamers accountable, Macdonald — the NFL’s youngest head coach at 37 — favors an old-school fashion that features loads of powerful love. Whereas their philosophies differ, Macdonald nonetheless plans to lean on the identical defense-and-run-game components on the sphere that propelled Carroll to probably the most wins in franchise historical past and its lone Tremendous Bowl title.

The Seahawks are discovering their footing on the bottom, rating twenty third in dashing yards (97.3 common), however they’ve began the season 3-0 heading into Monday night time’s recreation towards the Detroit Lions at Ford Area (8:15 p.m. ET, ABC). With Macdonald calling their protection, they’re permitting the fourth-fewest factors within the NFL (14.3), the principle purpose why they’re one of many league’s 5 remaining unbeaten groups.

“He is simply massive on accountability, which is basically vital proper now as a result of it is loads of new gamers, a brand new workers, a brand new means of doing issues round right here,” defensive deal with Leonard Williams mentioned. “I feel once you’re attempting to implement one thing new, it takes rather a lot on the gamers and the leaders on the group to carry everybody accountable. … I feel he is doing a very good job.”

IN JANUARY, THREE days after the Seahawks beat the Arizona Cardinals to complete 9-8 for a second straight season, the group introduced Carroll was out as head coach. It was not a typical firing. The transfer got here after a number of conferences with Allen, who mentioned in an announcement the 2 sides had agreed Carroll would transition into an advisory function.

Throughout his farewell information convention later that day, Carroll made it clear his want was to proceed teaching the group. Allen, who has stayed out of public view since she assumed management of the group in 2018, didn’t communicate on the gathering, and the group’s temporary assertion provided no perception into why the transfer was made.

Extra simple was what would occur subsequent.

As Schneider confirmed, a clause within the extension he signed after the 2020 season stipulated he would assume the highest spot in Seattle’s soccer operations division when Carroll left. The 2 had arrived collectively in 2010 beneath an atypical association during which Carroll had remaining say over personnel choices and each reported to possession.

Lately, the 2 had mentioned the opportunity of Carroll, sooner or later, ceding that energy to Schneider. With Carroll out, the overall supervisor was now formally in cost. As the previous coach handed the baton, he alluded to the burden that comes with being the group’s high decision-maker.

“It has been 14 years, he is been ready for his alternative and he deserves it,” Carroll mentioned. “He is nice at what he does. And now he’ll discover out. Discover out, massive fella. However he deserves this second.”

Schneider’s first order of enterprise was the one which will outline the remainder of his tenure as Seahawks GM — hiring Carroll’s substitute. When Schneider was interviewing for the job in 2010, he was getting ready to rent a head coach, solely to seek out out that Carroll was already their man. Fourteen years later, Schneider’s probability had come.

Schneider had been doing homework on potential successors realizing Carroll, nicely into his 70s and with varied pursuits outdoors of soccer, might determine to retire at any time. With some legwork carried out, he forged a large internet in his search, assembly just about with at the very least eight candidates for preliminary interviews.

Macdonald was squarely on Schneider’s radar, having developed a fame as one of many NFL’s brightest defensive minds. The Ravens have been the league’s top defense the previous two seasons, and the Seahawks noticed first-hand the problems Macdonald’s scheme created throughout a 37-3 loss to Baltimore in November. Michigan had additionally simply gained a nationwide championship utilizing the protection Macdonald helped construct throughout his lone season because the Wolverines’ DC in 2021.

play

MNF Trailer: Titans vs. Dolphins & Seahawks vs. Lions

Prepare for an additional double-header for “Monday Evening Soccer” in Week 4, with Tennessee heading to Miami and Seattle going to Detroit.

Due to the timing of Carroll’s exit, the Seahawks weren’t capable of conduct an preliminary interview with Macdonald in the course of the Ravens’ playoff bye week. Since they missed that preliminary window, NFL guidelines stipulated they watch for Baltimore’s season to finish. The interview did not occur till Jan. 30, two days after the Ravens misplaced within the AFC Championship Game and virtually three weeks after they introduced Carroll’s departure.

The Seahawks, in response to a group supply, had observed a development with their earlier interviews, with some candidates impressing them in digital conversations however not almost as a lot in the course of the second, in-person periods. Macdonald, then again, blew them away when Schneider, Allen, assistant GM Nolan Teasley and the remainder of their management group met with him face-to-face in Baltimore.

A significant promoting level was his philosophy on holding gamers accountable and his three-word motto that embodies it — “make it proper.” Schneider discovered Macdonald to be such an environment friendly communicator {that a} two-hour portion of their interview with him felt extra like 20 minutes. He would finally inform his scouting division to be ready for a lot faster conversations with Macdonald than they have been used to having with Carroll.

“It was communication, management, readability … that jumps off with Mike,” Schneider mentioned. “I had talked to a number of folks that had interviewed him already and so they have been like, ‘Wait till you look on this man’s eyes, man. He is there. He is current. He is on it.’ And he was. Everyone in that room felt it.”

Carroll and Schneider would usually disagree however finally got here collectively on virtually each choice, which is how Schneider plans to function with Macdonald now that he has remaining say. Schneider mentioned he might rely on one or two palms the variety of instances Carroll needed to wield his personnel energy.

The extra vital change in Schneider’s function is that each one the coaches — Macdonald included — now report back to him.

Macdonald had spent 9 of his 14 seasons as a coach working in a single place, having joined John Harbaugh’s workers in Baltimore as an intern in 2014 after three seasons at his alma mater, Georgia. He did not have a deep checklist of teaching contacts, so Schneider labored intently with him to construct his workers. The 2 went to work on it the day earlier than Macdonald was launched as Seattle’s coach on Feb. 1, attempting to make up for misplaced time.

Macdonald had beforehand labored alongside 4 of the 24 assistants they employed, together with assistant head coach Leslie Frazier and particular groups coordinator Jay Harbaugh. As one Seahawks supply put it, Macdonald prioritized one of the best academics versus the familiarity of teaching pals.

Because the workers was coming collectively, the 2 mentioned one well-known title that they did not find yourself hiring. Schneider expressed some reservations to Macdonald in addition to one factor he appreciated — the assistant’s capability to be an enforcer.

He liked his new head coach’s response.

“Is not that what I am right here for?”

Carroll remains to be technically employed by the Seahawks, although he is not talked about on their on-line checklist of workers, nor has he been spending a lot time at group headquarters.

Carroll did plan initially to serve in an undetermined advisory function, as his mentor, Bud Grant, had carried out with the Vikings after his remaining season as Minnesota’s head coach. However in an August appearance on 93.3 KJR-FM in Seattle — whereas one among his ex-players, Doug Baldwin, was co-hosting — Carroll mentioned he is been conserving his distance from the group. He declined to remark to ESPN for this story and hasn’t carried out another media interviews other than the lone radio look, preferring to put low out of respect for Macdonald and the beginning of his regime.

“I have never talked to these guys in any respect,” Carroll instructed the station. “I bumped into Mike within the car parking zone sooner or later, and it was an incredible probability to simply, the 2 of us alone, to satisfy. … I am not paying that a lot consideration to it as a result of it simply feels prefer it’s the best factor to do to allow them to go.”

THE FIRST THING Seahawks gamers point out when describing Macdonald is often his mind.

“I do not suppose Coach is aware of how sensible he’s,” linebacker Tyrel Dodson mentioned. “The stuff that he comes up with, I am like, ‘Wow.’ I’ve simply by no means heard of that. Individuals might be sensible and also you not perceive them. He is sensible and he understands us and he coaches it so nicely.”

Macdonald, born in Boston and raised within the Atlanta suburb of Roswell, graduated summa cum laude from Georgia with a finance diploma earlier than returning to the varsity to earn his grasp’s in sports activities administration.

“Nerdy for certain,” cornerback Devon Witherspoon mentioned. “However it’s in a great way, although, his personal means, and I feel that is what makes him who he’s.”

Macdonald’s humorousness is one other aspect of his persona that is usually introduced up by gamers, even when his jokes do not all the time land in group conferences.

“We giggle with him as a result of it is like, ‘OK, we see the place you have been going there, but it surely did not come throughout the way you wished it to,'” cornerback Tre Brown mentioned. “However we love him, man. He is a pleasant man.”

Macdonald is not arduous on gamers as a default, Brown mentioned, solely when he must be.

One such second got here on the finish of a apply early in coaching camp, when Macdonald noticed a bunch of younger gamers heading inside in defiance of directions to signal autographs. He caught as much as one among them and gave him an earful, sternly ordering an undrafted rookie to the berm throughout the sphere, the place followers have been ready.

One other rookie who witnessed the change exclaimed with a smile, “Mike doesn’t play.”

Those that performed for Carroll and labored beneath him say they by no means noticed him dole out self-discipline that means, even behind the scenes. The last word gamers’ coach, he believed in empowering them as a way of getting probably the most out of them, which meant giving loads of leeway and main extra like a father determine than an authoritarian. He was prepared to take care of the inevitable draw back of that strategy — the free spirits who would take extra rope than he gave.

“Philosophy is rather a lot completely different,” Brown mentioned of the change in coaches.

“Make it proper,” which Macdonald adopted throughout his early days in Baltimore, embodies the usual he desires his gamers to satisfy each on and off the sphere. It is about correcting errors or avoiding them within the first place, about making it clear what will not fly whereas leaving no room for ambiguity.

“There’s going to be errors made on the market,” Macdonald mentioned. “Let’s take accountability, let’s not level fingers and let’s transfer ahead. It simply made sense on how you can do enterprise with the blokes and the way you need to be coached. You don’t need it to be private. … It is simpler to teach that means, once you’re not blaming the particular person, you are blaming the motion of what is going on on and attempting to teach that.”

Stated offensive passing recreation coordinator Jake Peetz of Macdonald’s plain-spoken fashion: “He is very very similar to, hit you between the eyes, very direct. You do not actually have loads of guesswork on the place you stand as a result of he’ll come to you with data … and he is aware of how you can say … ‘That is what I need, how I need it,’ and he can put together his guys to get it carried out.”

Macdonald’s nice system — extra strictly enforced than Carroll’s — features a $500 penalty for exhibiting up even one minute late to a gathering, in response to one participant. Being chubby and lacking bodily remedy periods are different finable offenses.

“It comes up each day,” cornerback Artie Burns mentioned of the saying. “A easy mistake on a protection: Make it proper, get it mounted and we’ll stay on the subsequent play. A minute late to conferences: Make it proper, you are fined up, do not do it once more. It is simply a simple approach to get it solved and know, hey, the usual is the usual, do not slip away from it, and simply make it proper.”

WITH A WIN Monday night time, Macdonald would turn out to be the primary rookie head coach since Dan Quinn in 2015 to begin 4-0. In accordance with ESPN Analysis, it is occurred 10 instances since 1970.

The Seahawks have benefited from a comfortable schedule out of the gate that included internet hosting the Denver Broncos in Bo Nix‘s NFL debut and the Miami Dolphins with out Tua Tagovailoa. The subsequent month will take a look at them. They’re banged up on either side of the ball and have a a lot more durable slate of quarterbacks on the horizon, together with Jared Goff on Monday night time after which Brock Purdy, Josh Allen and Matthew Stafford earlier than their bye in Week 10.

However thus far, their new schemes on either side of the ball are taking maintain, and so is Macdonald’s “make it proper” message.

“From my perspective, what makes it work is when the entire group is purchased into the system,” Williams mentioned. “We maintain one another accountable now. … If it was all the time coming from Mike, it could most likely be straightforward to be like, ‘Oh, Mike’s the unhealthy man,’ or one thing like that.

“In our personal D-line room, we have now our personal ‘make it proper’ system the place now we maintain one another accountable. So it is virtually like the entire group has simply purchased into that sort of mindset.”